{"id":1027,"date":"2025-03-09T14:46:28","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T14:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/why-you-should-sign-up-for-an-i-r-s-identity-protection-pin\/"},"modified":"2025-03-09T14:46:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T14:46:28","slug":"why-you-should-sign-up-for-an-i-r-s-identity-protection-pin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/why-you-should-sign-up-for-an-i-r-s-identity-protection-pin\/","title":{"rendered":"Why You Should Sign Up for an I.R.S. Identity Protection PIN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Here\u2019s a terrible thing that happens: Thieves pretend they\u2019re you, file a tax return in your name very early in the year, claim a fat refund and run away with the money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When you try to file your own return, the Internal Revenue Service rejects it. After all, according to the agency\u2019s system, your taxes have already been filed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Months, and sometimes years, of hellish red tape ensues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The I.R.S. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/identity-theft-fraud-scams\/get-an-identity-protection-pin\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">has a tool<\/a> called an identity protection PIN, or IP PIN, that can prevent this nightmare in most instances. You register and hand over some personal information so the government can verify you. Then you get a six-digit IP PIN to use when filing your taxes each year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Easy enough, right? But my inbox is filled these days with deep wariness. For weeks now, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has deployed individuals inside the I.R.S. to poke at its computer systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Readers worried about the possibility of those people breaking something and exposing data accidentally to wider numbers of people. Or that they would inadvertently create vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit. They also said they were worried that Elon Musk or others on his team could use the I.R.S. data for nefarious purposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I\u2019ve gone ahead and gotten my IP PIN anyway. So has James E. Lee, president of the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idtheftcenter.org\/about-us\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Identity Theft Resource Center<\/a>, a former cybersecurity executive who is on an I.R.S. advisory panel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In these highly uncertain times, we can\u2019t be sure who will do what to whom next.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But we can know what has already happened to data that the federal government stores. In 2015, the White House revealed that hackers had stolen vast troves of sensitive information about 21.5 million people from the federal Office of Personnel Management. Last year, a former I.R.S. contractor was sentenced to five years in jail for leaking data on thousands of wealthy citizens, including President Trump, to The New York Times and ProPublica.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAny place that stores your personal information, whether the U.S. government or the corner grocery store, is at risk \u2014 period,\u201d Mr. Lee said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So if DOGE represents added risk, why not add protection?<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It\u2019s not a rhetorical question to plenty of readers, so let\u2019s start with an explainer on how the I.R.S.\u2019s IP PIN system works.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">To begin, you\u2019ll need an online account with the agency if you don\u2019t have one already and complete a brief identity verification process. During that process, you\u2019ll hand over information that the federal government most likely already has \u2014 and thus, like any such data, is already there for the taking if thieves or bad internal actors want to put it to nefarious uses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Once you\u2019re registered, generating the IP PIN is quick and easy. You don\u2019t need to save or remember it, either; you can log back in to get it when you need it. (This PIN is different from the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/e-file-providers\/self-select-pin-method-for-forms-1040-and-4868-modernized-e-file-mef\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">five-digit PIN<\/a> that some people use to file their taxes electronically, and you can have both types.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then you submit the IP PIN when filing your taxes. The IP PIN will change once per year. The I.R.S. has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/identity-theft-fraud-scams\/frequently-asked-questions-about-the-identity-protection-personal-identification-number-ip-pin\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a thorough F.A.Q.<\/a> about the IP PIN system on its website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now consider the downside of not protecting yourself. If thieves file a return in your name \u2014 and it has happened to hundreds of thousands of people \u2014 you won\u2019t get any tax refund owed to you <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov\/news\/nta-blog\/identity-theft-awareness-and-update-on-irs-processing-of-identity-theft-victim-assistance-cases-2\/2025\/01\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">for a good long while<\/a>. And to get that money, you\u2019ll spend a lot of unquality time with the I.R.S. re-establishing yourself.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And then there\u2019s this: My colleague Andrew Duehren recently reported that the I.R.S. is preparing to reduce its work force by as much as 50 percent. Good luck to anyone trying to fix an identity theft problem if that happens. It could easily take a couple of years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">I worry more about the risk of tax-refund fraud than I do about DOGE employees\u2019 work inside the I.R.S. Most of my personal data is already out there somewhere on the dark web or hackable in various places anyway.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As the former I.R.S. taxpayer advocate Nina E. Olson, now the executive director of the nonprofit <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/taxpayer-rights.org\/about-us\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Taxpayer Rights<\/a>, told me via email this week, there are still laws about disclosure of taxpayer data. That\u2019s why that I.R.S. contractor went to jail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If DOGE employees or Mr. Musk himself breaks those laws, there will be consequences. And if there aren\u2019t, we will be in a great deal more existential trouble as a country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Olson said she was going to get her own IP PIN. I wondered if Danny Werfel, the last I.R.S. commissioner under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., had already done so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He didn\u2019t want to say when we talked this week. He has a longstanding practice of not getting too personal, lest he look like he\u2019s endorsing a piece of tax-filing software, say.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBut I\u2019m a very cautious taxpayer,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll put it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s a terrible thing that happens: Thieves pretend they\u2019re you, file a tax return in your name very early in the year, claim a fat refund and run away with the money. When you try to file your own return, the Internal Revenue Service rejects it. After all, according to the agency\u2019s system, your taxes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[751,752,754,753,750],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-loan","tag-i-r-s","tag-identity","tag-pin","tag-protection","tag-sign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finzexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}