If your business gets an urgent text from the IRS this filing season, it’s almost certainly a scam. The IRS’s 2026 “Dirty Dozen” scam list points to three threats that small and midsize businesses should treat as immediate tax-season risks: fake IRS messages, bad tax advice on social media, and “ghost” preparers who file returns without signing them. The common thread is simple: each scam tries to trick business owners into handing over money, data, or a false filing that can cost business owners money and trigger audits.

Here’s what the agency flagged for 2026.

IRS impersonation scams expand across email, text, and AI-driven calls

This year’s list includes email and text phishing attempts with features such as:

  • Alarming language
  • QR codes
  • Fake IRS sites that prompt people to ‘verify’ accounts, enter personal information, or chase refunds.

It also warned about phone scams that use spoofed caller IDs and AI-generated voices to sound legitimate. For smaller businesses, that risk is not limited to the owner’s inbox. Tax records, payroll details, and login credentials often sit with a small finance team or an outside bookkeeper, which means one convincing message can create both tax trouble and a broader data security problem.

The IRS’s advice: don’t click unexpected links or attachments; suspicious links can install malware, including ransomware. The harder part is identifying these scams in today’s age of convincing AI and spoofing.

Viral “tax hacks” can trigger audits and penalties

Misleading tax advice on social media, though not always a scam, can still cause significant issues. Viral “tax hacks” may prompt false returns or unqualified credits, leading to delays, audits, or penalties. For business owners, tax misinformation can blur lines between personal and business filings.

The IRS separately flagged a bogus promotion of a non-existent “Self-Employment Tax Credit,” warning that the underlying credit being referenced is a much more limited, technical credit called “Credits for Sick Leave and Family Leave.” In reality, this credit was available only in limited COVID-19-related circumstances in 2020 and 2021 for self-employed individuals.

For businesses that rely on quick online answers during filing season, the pressure point is less the headline claim itself than the chance of putting unsupported numbers onto a return.

“Ghost” preparers shift the filing risk onto taxpayers

The IRS also warned about people who prepare returns but refuse to sign them or include a Preparer Tax Identification Number, otherwise known as “ghost preparers.” The agency called this a major red flag and said the taxpayer remains legally responsible for what gets filed.

For smaller businesses using outside help to manage taxes at a lower cost, that leaves little room for casual vetting. A missing signature may look procedural. In practice, it is a sign that the preparer may want the fee without the accountability that comes with it. The IRS also said taxpayers should never sign a blank or incomplete return.

The message from the 2026 list is straightforward: the scams vary, but they tend to work by rushing a filing decision, hijacking account access, or moving responsibility onto the business owner after the fact. In the end, they are avoidable with added vigilance and due diligence.