TurboTax, the country’s most popular do-it-yourself tax preparation software, halted the processing of state tax returns for about 24 hours because of a spike in fraudulent filings. 

State agencies have reported a rise in filings with stolen personal information, said Intuit, the company behind TurboTax. 

Minnesota revenue officials said Thursday that they had stopped accepting online tax returns from TurboTax after hearing evidence of potential fraud from Minnesota taxpayers. 

Most victims found out that a fraudulent tax return was submitted in their name when they received a rejection notice after filing their returns, said Intuit spokeswoman Julie Miller. 

There haven’t been issues with federal returns to

date because the IRS has implemented stronger fraud detection policies, Miller said. 

Intuit said it resumed filing of state returns about 6 p.m. Eastern time Friday with increased fraud protections, a day after it halted them. 

A Minnesota resident who contacted the Pioneer Press on Friday said she ran into problems filing her federal return. 

Several hours after she filed her TurboTax return online, she received an error message from TurboTax saying the IRS had rejected it. 

The woman said she called the IRS and spoke to a man who asked for detailed information, including her husband’s Social Security number and birth date. 

Once the representative seemed satisfied she was who she claimed to be, he informed her that someone had filed a return using her Social Security number. 

“You have fraud,” the IRS representative told her. 

The representative had her fill out an affidavit attesting to her identity and send the tax forms by mail, along with copies of her Social Security card and driver’s license. 

The woman said she mailed the same documentation – including the affidavit – to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, though she never spoke with them. 

“I sent in returns for my daughter, son, nephew, and husband, and all were accepted just fine,” she added. “ I don’t know if it was TurboTax that was the problem.” 

The woman noted that she was a customer of health insurance giant Anthem Inc., whose client data recently was breached on a massive scale.  Representatives said hackers gained access to the Social Security numbers, names, addresses and other personal information of about 80 million people. 

Intuit is working with security company Palantir to investigate the problem. 

So far, there has been no security breach of its systems, Intuit said.  Instead, it believes personal information was stolen elsewhere and used to file returns on TurboTax. 

Miller linked the problem to recent security breaches at large companies.  Aside from Anthem, there have been security breaches at JPMorgan Chase and several retailers, including Home Depot and Target. 

“You have a pretty rich pool of data out there in the world,” Miller said. 

Intuit said state tax returns already filed when the halt began Thursday will be transmitted as soon as possible. 

TurboTax set up a hotline for Minnesotans concerned about their returns at 800-944-8596.  After a 72-minute wait on the company’s “identity protection line,” a TurboTax representative explained that the filing pause for Minnesota state tax returns should end in “a few days” and that state tax officials have to approve lifting the pause. 

The representative said the pause affects only returns that already have been filed.  Any returns filed after the pause won’t be processed until it is lifted. 

Minnesota revenue officials flagged several thousand returns that had used TurboTax in order to review them.  The TurboTax representative said if the state reviews a return, the filer can expect their refund “in full,” but likely later than those not selected for review. 

On a conference call Thursday night, state revenue officials said the department’s databases have not been breached and a “robust fraudulent protection system is in place.” 

TurboTax processed 30 million tax returns last year, Miller said. 

Rival H&R Block Inc., which also sells tax preparation software, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. 

Another tax preparer, Liberty Tax Inc., said it is letting TurboTax customers file state returns for free at its more than 4,000 locations around the country. 

Pioneer Press staff writers Tad Vezner and Joseph Lindberg

contributed to this report.  Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461 or follow him on Twitter @SPnoir.