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Harry Sit has written an article on his website, The Finance Buff, this morning 9/14/2026, describing the new requirement for using ID.me to log into a TreasuryDirect account. I found the article particularity informative as, like him, I had previously obtained a ID.me account.
His closing comment, “You have two bad choices. Either give sensitive information to a private company picked by the government agency or sell everything and pay taxes. I really don’t like this, but I don’t think they will change”, accurately reflects my thoughts on this change.
I will likely wait a while, maybe a long while, before I log in to Treasury Direct using ID.me to give time to let any system bugs to be resolved.
What to do?
do it, is my advice. Everything is scary but so many people answer calls from unknown numbers and respond to email etc.
I logged into treasury direct (with id.me) yesterday (9/13) – no problems.
I had created my id.me account a couple weeks ago. It was fairly easy – because my credit is “locked down”, I could not use the automatic authentication, but had to have the interview. I figured I would have to wait and wait for the interview, but only waited about a minute. Same for my wife.
So, now I can access, treasury direct, social security and the IRS from id.me. I think perhaps the largest advantage to id.me/IRS is to be able to obtain the IRS filing PIN so no one else can file a tax return in my name.
I had waited this long because I too did not want to hand over my personal info to a company. But, seriously, at this point, I wonder if there is anyone left in the world who could not get my personal data.
I was hit by the OPM hack back in 2015 or so – I have figured that everyone has my data since then.
As far as I know, no one has attacked me – perhaps it pays to be boring.
Whether we like it for not, ID.me is the way many U.S Government agencies are turning to. They also have Login.GOV id, but off late they prefer us to use ID.me. If one pays estimated taxes via IRS Direct Pay, he/she already has to use ID.me for a few years now.
We have to simply trust that the U.S Government agencies are security conscious to protect the online safety and financial interests of the U.S Citizens.
I believe you can use the IRS Direct Pay without using the ID.me login. Yep, we have to live in the ever changing modern world of technology. Often it is our own actions that expose our personal information but our government decisions seems to have painted us into a corner.
No you can’t.
Please see the above link-
From the IRS link –
Pay taxes from your bank account with Direct Pay.
I have made two 2026 1040-ES thus far in 2026 that have been taken from my bank account via electronic draft.