The Miami IRS is reporting an overwhelming number of ID theft cases involving IRS refunds stolen.

When hearing that IRS refunds stolen and the pain it is causing people then politicians will remember Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Rallies as intimate picnic compared to the fury of a citizenry demanding their money.

Already the IRS is saying they’re going to have to delay payment to early filers because of lack of manpower. Now they are claiming they don’t have enough manpower to handle all the ID theft cases.

Recently Floridians were reported as waiting over 3 hours to talk to investigator, only to learn that it will take up to 90 days to investigate their claims.

But if 2012 proves to be bad year for the IRS as they deal with ID theft, then it is safe to assume that this is just the tip of the iceberg. As more and more cases are reported it stands to reason that the investigations will take even longer,particularly as the IRS claims to be short of man-power.

ID theft doesn’t discriminate against income bracket, party, race, sex, religion, class or any other demographics that politicians like to classify people into. The new classification may finally be “Tax Paying Americans”. So what can be done? Well that depends on the perspective of the question.

While nothing can give you 100% protection, here are a few tips:

1. Don’t write your SSN or Fed Tax ID on any checks if mailing your tax return via USPS.

2. Always use certified mail and hand it to the post office.

3. Shred any documents you used to determine your taxes.

4. Only use reputable tax services. You may think some are too expensive but the cost of Identity Theft will far overshadow the extra payment for service.

5. Be careful of tax scams by email, post and phone.