Ohio’s tax quiz makes sense

Columbus Dispatch: With tax season upon us, it’s good that the Ohio Department of Taxation is taking steps to cut down on identity theft and tax fraud. Some taxpayers, though, are complaining that security questions being asked of them to verify their identity are burdensome and are delaying tax refunds. The taxation department is asking questions such as “What year did your son sell his car?” and “What was the purchase price of the home you bought 20 years ago?”

TAX FRAUD INCREASES

While those questions might be easy for some, about 1 in 10 Ohioans fail and then have to jump through extra hoops to confirm their identity. So far, about 28,000 of the 280,000 selected for screening have flubbed the quiz, which gives people three tries online or by phone to come up with a right answer to a verification question. It makes sense for the state to guard against fraud: Though the end of last year, the taxation department caught 61,275 attempted fraudulent filings seeking $267 million in refunds. That’s a huge increase over previous years, which typically have seen fraud attempts totaling $8 million to $10 million per year. On the other hand, officials should do everything possible to help those who honestly can’t remember minutiae from decades ago .

Taxation department chief legal counsel Matt Chaffin says officials are “monitoring to see if there are tweaks we need to put in place” to make the verification system run more smoothly. Meanwhile, filers should be prepared to reach back in their memory banks if prompted.