You fill out your tax forms, submit them to the IRS and think everything is fine. Then you find out your taxes have already been filed. That means you are a likely victim of tax fraud.

Tampa Police Chief Jane Castor said it’s happening, and often.

“Just in the beginning of this tax season we have four police officers that have tried to file their taxes,” said Castor.  “And they have already been filed in somebody else’s name.”

The problem is it is a federal issue, not local.

Tuesday morning Tampa Police Detective Sal Augeri will be testifying before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee about tax fraud and its prevalence in the Bay area. He’ll also explain issues officers have investigating the crimes.

Castor said the Tampa Police Department has a lot of trouble investigating tax fraud. She said officers turn the reports over to the IRS and then they hit a dead end.

"The IRS is statutorily prohibited from sharing information with local law enforcement,” said Castor.  “So they are very, very difficult crimes to investigate."

Castor wants to see that law changed. More importantly she wants changes to the way taxes are filed, making fraud more difficult.

“I don’t know how they’re going to fix it,” said Castor. “I can just tell them that it’s got to be fixed at the point of filing. I can say with 100% certainty that we’re not going to investigate our way out of this problem.”