The following step of my “hardening” in opposition to id theft was to acquire an Identification Safety PIN (IP PIN) from the IRS. The frequent rip-off right here is that somebody together with your title, tackle, and Social Safety Quantity will file a tax return earlier than you do, after which steal the ensuing tax refund for themselves. In 2022, over 228,000 taxpayers filed IRS Kind 14039, Identification Theft Affidavit, which asserts “I do know or suspect that somebody used my info to fraudulently file a federal tax return”.
When you opt-in to the IP PIN program, the IRS is not going to settle for any tax return filed in the course of the present calendar 12 months (even for prior years) with out this distinctive six-digit quantity. Each calendar 12 months, you’ll get assigned a brand new IP PIN. So I’ll have to get one other one in January 2025, however getting one now will nonetheless stop anybody from submitting a fraudulent amended 2024 return throughout the remainder of 2024.
As with establishing credit score freezes, this course of was additionally so much simpler than up to now. Effectively, hopefully. To do it utterly on-line, you’ll want an ID.me account, which is a third-party supplier that the IRS trusts to confirm your id. From their web page:
You need to use both a self-service course of that requires a photograph of a authorities ID and selfie, or a stay name with an ID.me video chat agent that doesn’t require biometric knowledge.
I had already arrange an ID.me account for an additional goal years in the past, however I do keep in mind that the selfie methodology labored ultimately for me however my spouse needed to go for the stay video chat methodology. I’ve additionally needed to take care of issues with rejected ID photographs, an excessive amount of glare, software program crashes, and so forth.
In case you overlook your PIN, you possibly can all the time signal again into your IRS.gov account and think about it once more below your Profile. That is one more reason to take additional care together with your ID.me/IRS.gov passwords and MFA strategies. ID.me allows you to arrange a TOTP Authenticator app for MFA. Additionally set a reminder to make use of it whenever you ultimately file taxes, so your return doesn’t get rejected.
Extra info on the IRS IP PIN FAQ web page (that’s a variety of acronyms!).
