Taxpayers Get 1099s For Unemployment Payments They Didn't Apply For Or Receive
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It is tax season, but automobile service manager Patrick Bouton was surprised to find this 1099-G notice in his mail from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.
Bouton: It was claiming that I received unemployment for $3,476 for 2021, and I never filed.
KDKA's Andy Sheehan: You didn't collect unemployment?
Bouton: I didn't collect anything.
Bouton just discovered that he's one of hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians who had their identities stolen by cyber thieves who collected unemployment benefits in their name.
As KDKA-TV has reported, those thieves -- primarily from overseas -- have siphoned off billions of dollars in federal and state unemployment compensation from the state system, leaving these unwitting victims to contend with consequences.
To avoid paying taxes on benefits they never received, Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry Secretary Jennifer Berrier said they must take certain steps.
"File a police report with their local officials and file a report with the Department of Labor and Industry," she said.
Pennsylvania is not alone. Identity thieves have stolen more than $100 billion from state unemployment systems across the country, and the IRS is advising taxpayers to only pay taxes on money they've earned.
"They have advised all states, since this is a national issue, to only claim the money you've received. So the IRS has even acknowledged how big an issue this is," Berrier said.
Hopefully, no audits or delinquent tax notices will follow, but it's on Bouton and others to make things right.
"I have to take a day off to go file a police report, to go see the tax folks and all these kinds of things when I don't need to be missing a day at work,' he said.