IRS Identity Protection: PIN Request

Data breaches are everywhere and Identity theft is on the rise! With tax season coming up, not a great combination!

The IRS is keeping pace by offering taxpayers an Identity Protection PIN. This is a proactive approach to "lock" your tax account and sign up can be completed on the IRS online portal (fast) or manual by completing a Form 15227. This article will go over the online option.

Think of your PIN as a security key for your taxes. It is a unique six digit PIN sent to you every year that proves you are who you say you are. That is a new PIN every year. While anyone can sign up with a SSN, keep in mind that once you are in, it is a permanent commitment—you will need that PIN to file every year, or the IRS will bounce your return. You do have the option to opt-out on your IRS account portal. Your PIN will be delivered by mail and/or you may view it on your IRS online portal.

ID.me

Those who want to request a PIN will need to sign in or create a new ID.me account. ID.me is an account for all your USA government needs from USA jobs to well—IRS. If you are enrolling to ID.me or reivisting you account, make sure to review your MFA settings on ID.me and use a MFA option. Any is better than none.

You have the options for MFA. I have listed below from weakest to strongest.

Text/phone call, the worst option for any MFA, as those are non-encrypted methods.
Push notification if you want to download the ID.me app on your phone.
Code Generator, works with any such as Google Authenticator and ID.me Authenticator
Passkey and Security key are the strongest options today.