Wis. tax forms delivered with visible Social Security numbers
(Published Thursday, January 4, 2007 10:24:28 AM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - More than 100,000 state tax booklets that mistakenly had Social Security numbers visible on the labels went through the mail to Wisconsin residents, officials say.
The Department of Revenue said Wednesday that about 55,000 forms out of 170,000 sent out last week were recovered from post offices in Madison, Oshkosh and Portage as the agency scrambled to prevent the information from leading to identity thefts.
That meant the other 115,000 or so were delivered with the Social Security numbers on them.
The forms were mailed by Ripon Community Printers, under a contract with the state worth about $22,000.
Deputy Revenue Secretary Laura Engan said the company was provided with a computer file including names and addresses for the mailing and also including the Social Security numbers.
"I suppose technically there would be a way to remove that (Social Security) information from that file and, you know, certainly in retrospect that would have prevented this particular problem," Engan said.
"However, this contract is in its third year and we have not had that problem previously with the vendor in terms of putting that information incorrectly onto the actual tax document."
Andy Lyke, part owner of Ripon Community Printers, said the misprinting was an unfortunate mistake, and he would have preferred that the state not send along the Social Security information to his firm.
"It was regrettable it happened," he said.
Summary THE MISTAKE: Some 171,000 tax forms have been delivered since late last week with recipients' Social Security numbers on the mailing labels. The Department of Revenue figures more than 115,000 of the booklets were delivered to people who have used the basic Form 1 and filed jointly as married couples for the 2005 tax year.
THE REASON: The department said it gave a file to a contracted printer with confidential information such as names, addresses and Social Security numbers, which has been done in years past, but this time the Social Security numbers ended up on the labels.
THE COMPANY: Ripon Community Printers was responsible for the booklets and is trying to determine how the numbers ended up on the labels, president Andy Lyke said. They have printed the booklets for three years and were paid $22,000 this year.
