IRS scam alert 2026: the Dirty Dozen items that matter if you owe

What is the IRS Dirty Dozen?

The Dirty Dozen is an annual list of 12 tax scams and schemes that the IRS publishes to warn taxpayers and tax professionals. It is the agency's main yearly IRS scam alert, and the 2026 edition was released on March 5, 2026 in news release IR-2026-30.

The list mixes two kinds of threat. Some items are outside criminals stealing money or identities, such as fake IRS calls. Others are schemes that talk taxpayers into filing false claims, which leave the taxpayer, not the promoter, owing the tax back. The IRS notes that the taxpayer is legally responsible for what is filed on their return.

What is on the IRS Dirty Dozen 2026 list?

The IRS Dirty Dozen 2026 list names these 12 items. The third column is our own reading of how each one connects to back taxes.

Items 4, 6, 7, 9 and 10 share a pattern: a refund today, an IRS adjustment later. When the IRS reverses a false claim, the result is a balance due with interest, which is how some people end up reading pages like this one.

Which Dirty Dozen tax scams target people with tax debt?

Five of the 2026 Dirty Dozen tax scams are aimed squarely at people who owe or who are anxious about owing. Fear of an unpaid balance is the lever in each one.

OIC mills

The IRS describes OIC mills as operations that overpromise results and charge high fees to taxpayers who do not qualify for an Offer in Compromise. The IRS's advice is to check eligibility with its own free tools first. The Offer in Compromise Pre-Qualifier on IRS.gov does this, and the real application fee is $205, waived for people who meet the low-income certification. Our guide on tax relief scams walks through the sales script.

Phone, email and text impersonation

For 2026 the IRS singled out calls using spoofed caller ID and computer-generated voices. It says it generally contacts taxpayers by mail first and does not leave urgent, threatening prerecorded messages, demand immediate payment or threaten arrest. The email and text version uses alarming language and QR codes that lead to fake IRS websites. See IRS letter scam for how to verify paper notices.

IRS Online Account identity theft

Criminals try to take over IRS Online Accounts using stolen personal data, or pose as helpers offering to set one up. The IRS says to create your account yourself, directly on IRS.gov, and to turn down unsolicited offers of help. The account is also the safest way to confirm whether a balance is real.

Ghost preparers

A ghost preparer is someone who prepares a return for pay but refuses to sign it or include a Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN). The risk is highest when you are rushing to file several late returns at once. Never sign a blank or incomplete return, and use a credentialed professional; enrolled agent vs CPA explains how to check one.

IRS scam alert 2027: when is the next list released?

The 2027 Dirty Dozen list is not yet announced. The IRS releases the list each year during filing season; the 2026 list came out on March 5, 2026, so the 2027 edition would be expected sometime during the 2027 filing season, which the IRS has also not yet dated.

We will not guess the 2027 items. What can be said is which risks carry into tax scams in 2027 because of changes already announced by the IRS:

• Penalty relief confusion. The IRS's Automatic Exemption from Penalty, announced July 8, 2026 (IR-2026-83), removes certain penalties automatically for eligible taxpayers. Anyone charging to "apply" for relief that the IRS now grants without a request deserves a hard look.
• Payment method changes. Under Executive Order 14247 the IRS began phasing out paper refund checks on September 30, 2025, and says any electronic-only payment requirement is not expected before 2027. Messages claiming you must pay a tax bill a new way by a certain date should be checked on IRS.gov.
• AI-generated voices and messages. The 2026 list already flagged them, and they are cheap to produce at scale.

How do I report a tax scam?

Report a tax scam to the channel that matches it: impersonation messages to [email protected], phone impersonation to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), bad preparers on Form 14157, and general tax fraud tips through IRS.gov/SubmitATip.

Reporting does not settle any real balance you may have. Confirm what you owe in your IRS Online Account, then use an official option; the full set of routes, free and paid, is on help with IRS problems. For the phone version of these scams in detail, see IRS phone scam.