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Recently the IRS has begun offering everyone the opportunity to sign up for an account. It let’s you make payments, including payment plans to cover those taxes you expect to pay in the future not covered by with-holding.
I signed up right away to prevent a scammer from creating an account using my SS# and potentially filing a fake return. I’m certain my # is available on the Dark Web (like the other 95% of Americans) so the easiest protection I could think of was opening the account and locking it down with 2-factor.
I would just make another comment as far as security goes, which I would guess most readers here probably know about: the IRS will generate a unique ID PIN for your tax return (a new one every year) such that your return will not be processed unless you have it on your return. I got mine this year after logging into my account on February 2. My return was already complete so I could file at this point.
The obvious benefit is that this makes a fraudulent return almost impossible. But another advantage, though, is you don’t have to file at the earliest possible date, so if you don’t have all of your documents, you don’t have to worry about it.
I have done AARP and RSVP returns and you would frequently have taxpayers come in having heard the advice that you should file a return even if you have no tax liability in order to prevent tax fraud. If they have one of these PINS, that should not be a concern.
I would agree with the previous author, that setting up the IRS account was much tougher than just choosing a user name and password, but if you had a fairly tech savvy person to help, it does not take long. And once you get it, if you were not filing taxes because say you only had SS, you wouldn’t even need to retrieve the number from the IRS. The fact that it has already been generated should be protection enough.
I didn’t find ID.ME or the account particularly hard to do. A month later, when they were getting way more traffic, my son’s attempts crashed and burned. I think this is a general drawback when dealing with govt bureaucracy, there’s no other vendor, so they don’t invest thoroughly in infrastructure.
Treasury Direct made me feel like it was 1987 all over again. I won’t purchase with them, only do it thru my broker.
Thanks for adding to this
i did this several years ago. Recently I did something called locking your Social Security number which means someone can’t use it for employment or other things requiring a Social Security number. It is different than a security freeze at the credit bureaus.
I didn’t know such a thing existed! Now I have work to do.
Thanks
Scott,
Thanks for the prompt. I already had an ID.ME account from doing business with the VA. Getting that, was a total PITA. However, since I already had that, obtaining access to additional government departments like the IRS is pretty easy. I have always done my own taxes, but getting an IP PIN will make that more secure.
If anyone else is going to do this, you gotta be patient as the IRS site is busy.
They’ve made getting ID.ME setup much easier, but their systems aren’t as reliable as I’d like. It took me maybe 15-20 minutes including the biometric videos. My son, had the entire system crash and not able to complete it (literally a month after I did it).
So I harbor no illusion on the potl for annoying hiccups.
Thanks for commenting and agreed on PINs, I use extra authentication whenever possible.
What does total PITA mean???
pain in the ass
Which brings me to my frequent request: It would be great if commenters didn’t use short-hand that other readers won’t necessarily understand, whether it’s acronyms or referring to investments by their ticker symbols.