IRS Releases Annual ‘Dirty Dozen’ Tax Scams

The IRS announced its annual list of tax scams Feb. 27, accompanied by warnings for taxpayers, businesses, and tax professionals.

The agency’s 2025 Dirty Dozen list of 12 top scams ranges from email schemes to misleading tax credits.

While many of the listed scams peak during tax filing season, the agency notes that they also occur throughout the year as scammers pursue money, personal information, and data.

“Scammers are relentless, and they use the guise of tax season to try tricking taxpayers into falling into a variety of traps,” said Terry Lemons, IRS communications senior adviser.

“These red flags can lead to everything from identity theft to being misled into claiming tax credits for which they’re not entitled.”

IRS has worked for a decade with state tax agencies and the nation’s tax software and financial industry as well as tax professionals to educate taxpayers about scams and fraudulent schemes.

Dirty Dozen

The 2025 IRS Dirty Dozen list highlights the following 12 pervasive threats:

1. Email phishing scams: The IRS continues to see a barrage of email and text scams targeting taxpayers and others.

Taxpayers and tax professionals should be alert to fake communications from entities posing as legitimate organizations in the tax and financial community, including the IRS, state tax agencies, and tax software companies.

These messages arrive in the form of unsolicited texts or emails to lure unsuspecting victims into providing valuable personal and financial information that can lead to identity theft.

2. Bad social media advice: Another growing concern in 2025 continues to involve incorrect tax information on social media that can mislead honest taxpayers with bad advice, potentially leading to identity theft and tax problems.

Social media platforms routinely circulate inaccurate or misleading tax information, including on TikTok where people share wildly inaccurate tax advice. Some involve urging people to misuse common tax documents like Form W-2.

3. IRS Individual Online Account help from scammers: Swindlers can pose as a “helpful” third party and offer to help create a taxpayer’s IRS Individual Online Account at IRS.gov. In reality, no help is needed, and the agency offers tips on how to sign up and avoid scams.

The IRS Individual Online Account provides taxpayers with valuable personal tax information. But watch out: Third parties making these offers will try to steal a taxpayer’s personal information and try to submit fraudulent tax returns in the victim’s name to get a big refund.

4. Fake charities: Bogus charities are a perennial problem that can intensify whenever a crisis or natural disaster strikes. Scammers set up these fake organizations to take advantage of the public’s generosity. They seek money and personal information, which can be used to further exploit victims through identity theft.

Taxpayers who give money or goods to a charity might be able to claim a deduction on their federal tax return if they itemize deductions, but charitable donations only count if they go to a qualified tax-exempt organization recognized by the IRS.

5. False Fuel Tax Credit claims: A major concern during the past year involved taxpayers who were misled into believing they were eligible for the Fuel Tax Credit. The credit is meant for off-highway business and farming use and is not available to most taxpayers.

However, unscrupulous tax return preparers and promoters, including people on social media, continue enticing taxpayers into inflating their refunds by erroneously claiming the credit.

6. Credits for Sick Leave and Family Leave: This specialized credit is available for self-employed individuals for 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic; the credit is not available for later tax years.

The IRS is seeing repeated instances where taxpayers are using Form 7202, Credits for Sick Leave and Family Leave for Certain Self-Employed Individuals, to incorrectly claim a credit based on income earned as an employee and not as a self-employed individual.

7. Bogus self-employment tax credit: Social media advice continues to circulate about a non-existent “Self-Employment Tax Credit” that’s misleading taxpayers into filing false claims. Promoters market it as a way for self-employed people and gig workers to get big payments for the COVID-19 pandemic period.

Similar to misleading marketing around the Employee Retention Credit, there is inaccurate information being circulated that suggests many people qualify for the tax credit and payments of up to $32,000 when they actually do not.

8. Improper household employment taxes: Taxpayers invent fictional household employees and then file Schedule H (Form 1040), Household Employment Taxes, to claim a refund based on false sick and family medical leave wages they never paid.

9. Overstated withholding scam: This is a recent scheme circulating on social media encouraging people to fill out Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, or other forms like Form 1099-NEC and other 1099s with false income and withholding information.

In this overstated withholding scheme, scam artists suggest people make up large income and withholding amounts as well as the fictional employer supplying those amounts. Scam artists then instruct people to file the bogus tax return electronically in hopes of getting a substantial refund due to the large amount of fraudulent withholding.

10. Misleading Offers in Compromise: The Offers in Compromise program is an important program that helps people settle their federal tax debts when they are unable to pay in full.

But tax preparation mills can aggressively promote Offers in Compromise in misleading ways to people who clearly don’t meet the qualifications, frequently costing taxpayers thousands of dollars. A taxpayer can check their eligibility for free using the IRS Offer in Compromise Pre-Qualifier tool.

11. Ghost tax return preparers: Most tax preparers provide outstanding and professional service. However, people should be careful of shady tax professionals and watch for common warning signs, including charging a fee based on the size of the refund.

A major red flag or bad sign is when the tax preparer is unwilling to sign the return. Avoid these ghost preparers, who will prepare a tax return but refuse to sign or include their IRS Preparer Tax Identification Number as required by law.

12. New client scams and spear phishing: In 2025, the IRS continues to see the new client scam, which involves spear phishing attempts that target tax pros. Cybercriminals impersonate new, potential clients to trick tax professionals and other businesses into responding to their emails.

Once the tax pro responds, the scammer sends a malicious attachment or URL that can compromise the preparer’s computer systems and allow the attacker to access sensitive client information.

Baker’s Dozen: Other Schemes

The IRS also reminds taxpayers that beyond the Dirty Dozen, there are a wide array of other abusive schemes and bogus tax avoidance strategies that can mislead well-intentioned taxpayers.

These can involve different types of trusts, offshore schemes and even individual retirement arrangements.

More information on past schemes is available on the special Dirty Dozen section on IRS.gov.

The IRS also encourages people to report individuals who promote improper and abusive tax schemes as well as tax return preparers who deliberately prepare improper returns.

To report an abusive tax scheme or a tax return preparer, use the online Form 14242 – Report Suspected Abusive Tax Promotions or Preparers, or mail or fax a completed Form 14242 PDF and any supporting material to the IRS Lead Development Center in the Office of Promoter Investigations.