By ShowMeStepByStepPublished
Based on a video by Precision Accounting Intl. LLC.
Somebody files a tax return in your name, claims a refund, and the first you hear of it is when your own return gets rejected as a duplicate. Sorting that out takes months.
An Identity Protection PIN stops it. It is a six-digit number known only to you and the IRS, and any electronic return filed under your Social Security number without it gets rejected automatically. It is free, and it takes about fifteen minutes.
This walkthrough follows Precision Accounting through the whole flow, which is mostly identity verification rather than anything to do with the PIN itself.
Think of it as a password for your tax return. Your Social Security number identifies you and is not secret. Once an IP PIN is on your account, the SSN alone is no longer enough to file.
It covers electronic and paper returns both, and it protects the account even if you have no filing requirement at all.
The programme used to be limited to confirmed victims of tax identity theft. It is now open to any taxpayer who can verify their identity, and you do not need to have been targeted or to give a reason.
Budget fifteen to twenty minutes and do it in one sitting.
This catches people out. You can start on a laptop, but the ID photograph and the face scan both happen on a phone. ID.me texts you a link partway through and the flow moves there. There is no desktop-only path.
The number is not permanent. A new one is issued each year, retrievable from your online account from early January.
Last year's PIN will not work on this year's return, so retrieve the current one before you file. If you chose continuous enrolment it is generated for you automatically and just sits there waiting.
Two fallbacks. Under an income threshold, you can file Form 15227 by post and the IRS will call you to verify, with the PIN arriving the following filing season. Otherwise you can book an in-person appointment at a Taxpayer Assistance Center with two forms of ID.
Both are considerably slower than the online route. Try online first.
Worth stating plainly, because people ask their preparer to handle it. The IRS requires the taxpayer to complete identity verification personally, and tax professionals are explicitly barred from obtaining an IP PIN on a client's behalf.
You do the enrolment. Then you give your preparer the number so they can put it on the return.
Other IRS paperwork worth understanding: filing a tax extension, Form W-9, Form W-4, what a 1099 is and getting an EIN.
13 steps · about 6 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
Go to IRS.gov, click sign in, and choose to sign in to your individual account. You will land on a page offering two paths: sign in with an existing ID.me account, or create a new one.
ID.me is the identity verification service the IRS uses. You are not signing up for anything extra, and one ID.me account works across every IRS online service.
Tip
Already have an ID.me account from another government site? Use it. You do not need a second one.
Enter an email address you can actually get into, choose a password, confirm it and tick the terms box.
Use a personal email rather than a work one. You will need access to this account every January for the rest of your filing life, and work email disappears when jobs do.
Tip
Store the password properly. Losing it means redoing the entire identity verification from scratch.
ID.me sends a confirmation email. Either click the button in it or copy the six-digit code back into this page.
It can take up to fifteen minutes to arrive. Check spam before requesting another.
Tip
Leave this browser tab open while you go and check your inbox. Closing it means starting the form again.
Pick how you want to receive a sign-in code. Text message or phone call is the fastest, and either is fine.
Enter your mobile number, then type in the six-digit code that arrives.
Tip
Use a number you will keep. Changing phone numbers later means going through account recovery.
ID.me offers you a recovery code. Generate it and put it somewhere safe.
This is the thing that gets you back in if you lose your phone. Without it, and without the phone, you are back to full identity verification.
Tip
Screenshot it into a password manager, or write it down and keep it with your tax documents. Do not leave it only in your email.
Two ways to verify: self-service, which needs a photo ID and a selfie and takes five to ten minutes, or a video chat agent, which needs the same documents plus a recorded call and takes ten to fifteen.
Self-service is faster and it is the route shown here. The video chat option exists for people who would rather not submit biometric data, and it collects no selfie.
Tip
Wait times for video chat agents can be long at peak times, which is January through April. Self-service has no queue.
Choose which government photo ID you are using. Driver's licence, state ID, passport or passport card all work.
Then choose whether to photograph it with your phone or upload an existing image.
Tip
Photographing it live is more reliable than uploading an old file. The check is fussy about glare and crop.
ID.me texts a link to your phone. Open it there and photograph both sides.
Four things it checks, and all four cause rejections:
Lay it flat on a dark surface, in good light, and shoot straight down.
Tip
Doing this on a laptop? You still need a phone from this step on. There is no desktop-only path through the photo checks.
Grant camera permission, then start the face scan. It uses liveness detection, so it will ask you to move closer while a series of coloured lights flashes.
Take your glasses off. Reflections are a common failure.
Tip
The flashing is photosensitivity-relevant. If that is a concern, use the video chat agent route instead, which has no face scan.
Once the selfie matches your ID photo, enter your SSN.
It is used to confirm your identity against IRS records. This is not a credit check and it does not affect your credit score.
Tip
Check it digit by digit. A mistyped SSN fails the match and sends you round again.
ID.me lists exactly what it will hand to the IRS: name, email, birth date, address, SSN, phone. Read it, then click Allow.
This is the handoff. ID.me verified you, and this is you permitting it to tell the IRS so. You can revoke the access later in ID.me account settings.
Tip
Your IRS account is created the moment you approve this, and you are signed straight into it.
From inside your account, find and click Enroll in IP PIN.
Everything up to here was account creation. This is the first step that is actually about the PIN, which is why the process feels longer than it is.
Tip
Cannot see the option? Make sure you are in the individual account rather than a business or tax pro account.
You get two choices. Stay enrolled for future years generates a new PIN automatically every year. Current year only does it once.
Take the continuous option. Then click Enroll now, and your PIN appears immediately.
Print the page or write the number down and keep it with your tax records. Give it to your tax preparer when you file, and to nobody else.
Tip
The IRS will never ring, email or text you asking for your IP PIN. Anyone who does is running a scam.
Keep going
How to Fill Out a W-4
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