财政部监察长报告：幽灵代报税人涉1.79亿美元退税，3.8万名报税人识别号不合规经手逾200万份税表
美国财政部税务监察长办公室（TIGTA）10月21日发布评估报告、10月23日公开全文：国税局（IRS）对收费代报税人的监管存在系统性缺口。报告查明，在2025处理年度，超过3.8万名报税人使用不合规的报税人税务识别号（PTIN）——包括已过期等非有效状态——经手了超过200万份税表；其中近1.2万人只办理申请退税的税表，合计约9.5万份个人税表、申报退税近6亿美元，报告认为这类报税人风险更高。
报告还发现，2010年至2025年间，IRS曾向不符合资格者发放或续期PTIN，其中73个发给了已故者与在押人员；审查时还有691名IRS雇员持有有效PTIN，其中90多人可能曾收费替人报税，而联邦规定禁止IRS雇员收费代报税，IRS当时没有机制阻止雇员取得PTIN。
涉案金额最大的是「虚增预扣税」骗局：2023与2024两个税年，涉案报税人经手的税表合计申请退税约7.4亿美元，其中约84%是没有专业执照的代报税人；部分「幽灵代报税人」——收费代报税却不在税表上签名、不填PTIN的人——经手的税表带有同样的疑似欺诈特征，申请退税约1.79亿美元。据《会计杂志》对报告的梳理，2023税年有47名疑似幽灵代报税人关联6,352份税表、申请退税逾9,400万美元，2024税年有65名关联6,444份税表、申请退税逾8,500万美元；整个骗局两年共涉及2,044名报税人、78,530份税表。
报告指出，2024财年超过半数的个人纳税人使用收费代报税人，代报税人对税法执行影响巨大，但IRS对无执照代报税人的监管权限有限。TIGTA提出一项建议：IRS应定稿并落实其数据驱动的代报税人监管策略，涵盖纳税人宣导、处罚考量、雇员PTIN政策、骗局推广者与幽灵代报税人；IRS已同意该建议。
美国政府问责办公室（GAO）10月发布的另一份报告（GAO-27-108176）同样指出，IRS追踪幽灵代报税人案件的系统互不连通、难以统计已识别与已处置的数量，相关工作分散在六个办公室且没有可衡量的目标，GAO提出三项建议，IRS亦已同意。参议院已一致通过《纳税人服务与协助法案》，拟扩大IRS对收费代报税人的监管，法案尚待众议院审议。
Treasury Watchdog: Ghost Tax Preparers Tied to $179 Million in Refund Claims, 38,000 Preparers Used Noncompliant ID Numbers on 2 Million Returns
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued an evaluation report on October 21, 2026, released publicly on October 23, finding systemic gaps in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) oversight of paid tax return preparers. In processing year 2025, more than 38,000 preparers used a noncompliant Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) — including expired or otherwise inactive numbers — to prepare over 2 million tax returns. Nearly 12,000 of them prepared only refund-claiming returns, about 95,000 individual returns claiming nearly $600 million in refunds, a pattern the report says presents a higher risk.
Between 2010 and 2025, the IRS also issued or renewed PTINs for ineligible people, including 73 issued to deceased individuals and prisoners. At the time of the review, 691 IRS employees held active PTINs and more than 90 may have prepared returns for compensation, which federal rules prohibit for IRS employees; the IRS had no process to prevent employees from obtaining a PTIN.
The largest dollar figure involves an overstated-withholding scheme: for tax years 2023 and 2024 combined, returns tied to the scheme requested about $740 million in refunds, and about 84 percent of the preparers involved were uncredentialed. Some were ghost preparers — paid preparers who do not sign returns or include a PTIN — whose returns showed the same potentially fraudulent characteristics and claimed about $179 million. A Journal of Accountancy breakdown of the report counted 47 potential ghost preparers linked to 6,352 tax-year 2023 returns requesting more than $94 million, and 65 linked to 6,444 tax-year 2024 returns requesting more than $85 million; overall the scheme involved 2,044 preparers and 78,530 returns over two years.
More than half of individual taxpayers used a paid preparer in fiscal year 2024, the report notes, yet IRS authority to regulate uncredentialed preparers is limited. TIGTA made one recommendation — that the IRS finalize and implement its data-driven return preparer strategy, covering preparer outreach, penalties, employee PTIN policy, scheme promoters and ghost preparers — and the IRS agreed.
A separate Government Accountability Office report this month (GAO-27-108176) likewise found that the IRS systems tracking ghost preparer cases are not connected, that the agency cannot reliably count how many it has identified or addressed, and that its efforts are fragmented across six offices without measurable goals; the IRS agreed with GAO's three recommendations. The Senate has unanimously passed the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act, which would expand IRS oversight of paid preparers; the bill awaits House consideration.
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：佐治亚州 Athens 一家收费报税服务门店（资料图，与报告所涉个案无关）。照片：Harrison Keely，CC BY 4.0。 / A paid tax preparation storefront in Athens, Georgia (file photo; not connected to any case in the report). Photo: Harrison Keely, CC BY 4.0.
