IRS Investigates Breach Impacting 100,000 Taxpayers

03:52

May 27, 2015

The Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.. The agency is investigating a data breach affecting over 100,000 people. (J. David Ake/AP)

The IRS is investigating a data breach. The agency said yesterday that criminals were able to gain access to the tax returns of more than 100,000 taxpayers and file fraudulent tax returns.

The IRS said it sent nearly $50 million in refunds before detecting the scam, which comes after the IRS has struggled with security issues in recent years.

Here & Now's Robin Young talks to Jill Schlesinger of CBS News, who says that while the impact of the hacks is unclear now, next year we may see hackers rerouting taxpayers' refunds to hard-to-trace debit cards.

Guest

Jill Schlesinger, CBS News business analyst and host of "Jill on Money." She tweets @jillonmoney.

This segment aired on May 27, 2015.