Reminder for brand new tax season. Id Safety PINs (IP PIN) have been up to date for 2026 (they’re up to date each January).
An necessary “hardening” tactic in opposition to identification theft is to acquire an Id 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, Id 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 won’t settle for any tax return filed throughout the present calendar yr (even for prior years) with out this distinctive six-digit quantity. Each calendar yr in January, you’ll get assigned a brand new IP PIN. Getting one at any time will nonetheless forestall anybody from submitting a fraudulent return throughout the remainder of that calendar yr.
To do it fully on-line, you’ll want an ID.me account, which is a third-party supplier that the IRS trusts to confirm your identification. 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 reside name with an ID.me video chat agent that doesn’t require biometric knowledge.
I had already arrange an ID.me account for one more function 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 reside video chat methodology. I’ve additionally needed to cope with issues with rejected ID photographs, an excessive amount of glare, software program crashes, and so forth.
For those who overlook your PIN, you possibly can at all times signal again into your IRS.gov account and think about it once more beneath your Profile. That is another excuse to take additional care together with your ID.me/IRS.gov passwords and MFA strategies. ID.me permits you to arrange a TOTP Authenticator app for MFA. Additionally set a reminder to make use of it once you ultimately file taxes, so your return doesn’t get rejected.
Extra info on the IRS IP PIN FAQ web page (that’s lots of acronyms!).