Tax Season: Identity Theft Prevention with Shredding

If you associate tax season with identity theft season, you're right on the money. From online hacks to garbage sifting, this is the time of year when everyone's personal information is flying around in nearly every direction. The good news is that you can likely shred more documents than you think this year. If your bank keeps track of all your statements online, there's no need to keep years worth of paper in your file cabinets. When you shred your documents, you open the door to more space in your home and less proverbial clutter in your brain. Just the presence of unnecessary information can cause you to feel stressed, and that's before you even go through it all! We'll look at document destruction and how it can help you simplify your taxes.  

How Secure is Shredding?

This question depends on the type of shredding you do. There are some criminals who will do anything to get their hands on information, including piecing together countless shards of paper. Like a financially viable jigsaw puzzle, it may only take a couple of key shreds for the whole thing to unravel. That's why there are certain levels to shredded documents, determined by the size of the shred. These classifications are available for all media, including hard drives or DVDs. Things like electronics and media can be disintegrated into a powder, so there's no chance of putting anything back together again. Government shredding typically has strict requirements, so there's virtually no possible way to reconstruct the documents. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for most documents as they were typically done in wide enough shreds to put back together. 

Prevent Identity Theft with Shredding

If you're concerned about your tax documents, secure shredding can be the answer to help you finally clear out your home office, basement, or attic. However, you should also become aware of the common signs of identity theft during this season, just in case. If the IRS contacts you about a return you didn't file or rejects your return because your social security number has been used, these are signs that something has gone wrong. Similarly, if the IRS sends out a transcript or notice that you didn't request or that references an unknown matter, your data may have already been breached. These tips can help you put a stop to identity theft before it gets out of control. Shredding documents can also make it much less likely that you'll ever run into this problem in the first place.

Contact Carolina Shred

Instead of having to work through stacks of papers with a home shredder (that can likely only handle a few pages at a time), it makes more sense to let a shredding company take the wheel. Not only can Carolina Shred effectively work through all of your documents, but we can also help you with any number of electronic devices that need destroying. Whether you only need shredding during tax time or you could stand for a few more sessions throughout the year, we're here to simplify your life. Our reputation is built on preventing identity theft by employing the most effective shredding methods for our customers.