NO!!! Any
e-mail you receive from the IRS is a scam!
I am 100% sure of this, since the IRS never contacts
taxpayers by e-mail. The IRS recently
released IRS Tax Tip 201319 reminding taxpayers about this, and how to avoid
identity theft:
1. The IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email or social
media channels to request personal or financial information.
2. The IRS never asks for detailed personal and financial information like
PIN numbers, passwords, or similar secret access information for credit card,
bank, or other financial accounts.
3. The address of the official IRS website is www.irs.gov .
Do not be misled by sites claiming to be the IRS but ending in .com, .net, .org,
or anything other than .gov. If you discover a website that claims to be the
IRS but you suspect it is bogus, do not provide any personal information on
their site and report it to the IRS.
4. If you receive a phone call, fax, or letter in the mail from an
individual claiming to be from the IRS but you suspect they are not an IRS
employee, contact the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to determine if the IRS has a
legitimate need to contact you. Report any bogus correspondence. Forward a
suspicious email to phishing@irs.gov.
5. You can help the IRS and other law enforcement agencies shut down these
schemes. Visit the IRS.gov
website to get details on how to report scams, and helpful resources if you are
the victim of a scam. Click on “Reporting Phishing” at the bottom of the page.
So don’t respond to it! Don’t even open it, since it
might contain malware or a virus.
Be
sure not to ignore any written letters from the IRS, though. These are almost always legitimate.