 Internal Revenue Service R.R.S. Tax News, National Tax Security Awareness Week Day 4, choosing a unique identity protection pen as extra safety for taxpayers. Wow, a magical identity protection pen? That sounds great! It'll be like Frodo when he puts on that ring and nobody can see him, except like that one dude. The security protection pen will turn me into like Batman. Once my identity is protected, I can safely strike fear into the hearts of wrongdoers. The first one on my list is that dang IRS. But wait a second, considering the IRS gave me the identity protection pen, is it possible the IRS wrongdoers will still know my identity? The pen ring thing actually having been forged by Sauron himself? Honestly, I feel like I just ordered my custom bat mask from the Joker. It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic. No, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway. That's like TikTok promising to not give my personal data to communists. I mean, honestly, that's like giving the Biden's tax dollars and expecting them not to spend it on crack. It's ridiculous. Not to criticize or anything. I had an Uncle Joe that was the same way. Trust me, you don't want him anywhere near your silverware. I mean, talk about a gaslighter, I'll tell you what. Uncle Joe would be like, no, I'm not aware of any decrease in like the silverware supply. Something must have happened to it, man. Maybe it was the silverware supply shop on the corner. It's like, okay, yeah, right, Uncle Joe, something happened. You happen to it. You cracked out. I'll tell you what, when I go upstairs to check on my most valued possessions, I better still have a complete second edition of the garbage pail kids, Uncle Joe, or there's going to be hell to pay, honestly. Like when the dollar becomes worthless, those garbage pail kids will be putting food on this table. Dang it. People will be traded in garbage pail kids, I'm telling you. Anyways, first to joke, money doesn't grow on trees. It's a tough economy. Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows on trees. Which is good. Because trees grow stuff that actually maintains its value. Luminous being so weak, not this crude matter. Yeah, at least for a few months or so. My, I mean, my last paycheck spoiled in like a week. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. Maybe the government is picking the dollars of the proverbial dollar tree too early. Or maybe they're picking the leaves rather than the fruit. Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them. I'd be like the grocery store saying, hey, we've got some fresh pickings from the orange tree for everyone. Good news, everyone. Tomorrow you'll be making a delivery to Ebola nine, the virus planet. We're just going to hand them out for free. Aren't these great orange tree leaves? Cookie. Not me, sir. Young lady. No, thank you. No, no, I was just offering him a young lady. And it's like, wait a second. Nobody wants the leaves from the orange tree? Are you stuck up half-witted, scruffy-looking, nerve-herder? Who's scruffy-looking? Where's the fruit? No. President Biden then turns into his angry Biden mode saying, am I going mad? Or did the word fake escape your lips? And you're like, but sir, this can't possibly work. Who's the more foolish fool or the fool of all of us? Biden responding, don't worry. All we have to do is keep outpacing reality indefinitely and we'll be fine. Look, Israel on top of us. Wonder fishes in the same wind we're using. Whoever he is, he's too late. See the cliffs of insanity. And it's like, but how are we going to outpace reality forever? I mean, don't you need to sleep between lies? We first have an IRS YouTube video linked to that here. New security measures help protect against tax-related identity theft. IR 2022-210, December 1, 2022, Washington as part of a broader effort to increase security of the Internal Revenue Service and the Security Summit. Partners today remind the taxpayers they could get extra protection starting in January by joining the agency's Identity Protection Personal Identification Number, the IPPIN program. So this is the program that used to be just there for people that had their identity already stolen and then people filed fraudulent tax returns. And as a response to that, given your identity is already out there, they already have the social security number. They had to come up with a second number in order to protect the identity for the future. Now you can proactively get the IPPIN and hopefully safeguard against somebody filing a fraudulent tax return before it actually happens. So note the IPPIN you can kind of think of as a second social security number. Remember that these days because of increases or in part because of increases and changes to the tax code, increasing refundable credits, it's likely that lower income individuals or any individual, even if the person stealing can only file a low income tax return, are going to be targeted because now you've got more money on the table with these kind of refundable credits. Also note that with the increase in technology, it's kind of silly, it's kind of ridiculous at this point in time that when someone says, well, your identity was stolen, what they got your date of birth, they got even your social security number, how in the world would that happen? Well, that's because the internet is much more fluid these days. It's going to be really difficult to try to safeguard, say like your date of birth when you give it to someone and you celebrate your birthday every year. It's probably, you don't feel bad if someone knows your date of birth. Although they'll say, obviously you don't want to be shooting out all that personal information on all the social media platforms and everything. But again, even the social security number at this point in time, when the social security numbers were put in place, there wasn't an internet going on at this time. So now you've been given your social security number to everybody, the number has not changed, you give it to your employers, you give it to your financial institutions and so on and so forth. It's highly likely that if someone put in a little bit of time, they can gather a lot of social security numbers. So at some point, you would think they might need to kind of change the number from time to time. I know that would be burdensome. I don't know how that would work. But in terms of at least filing a fraudulent tax return, if someone has your social security number and your date of birth and so on and that kind of stuff, they might be able to do that and they're more likely to want to do that now because of all these refundable credits that they might be able to get access to even on the low income side of things. And therefore, you might want to proactively stop that by getting another pin like another social security number, which would only be applicable for basically tax reporting purposes, a little bit more burdensome, but possibly saving time down the road by giving another layer of protection. All right, so anyone who has a social security number SSN or an individual taxpayer identification number an ITIN and is able to verify their identity is eligible to enroll in the IPPIN program. More than 6.6 million taxpayers are now protecting themselves against tax related identity theft by participating in the IPPIN program. Last year, the IRS made changes to the program to make it easier for more taxpayers to join. The fastest and easiest way to receive an IPPIN is by using the get an IPPIN tool. There's a link to that here, which will be available in January. Today's reminder marks the fourth day of the National Tax Security Awareness Week, which runs through December 2nd. The security summit, there's a link to that sponsors this annual observance as part of a larger effort between the IRS, the state tax agencies as well as the nation's tax software and tax professional industries. So they basically get around and talk about, wow, there's a lot of stuff being stolen in terms of identities these days. And then they kind of tell you about it and stuff. So that's what we have here. So the security summit was established in 2015 to protect taxpayers and the nation's tax system against tax related identity theft. This unique collaboration between the public and private sectors has increased mutual defenses against criminals trying to file fraudulent tax returns and steal refunds. One of the critical features of the IRS system involves an IPPIN, which is a six digit number assigned to eligible taxpayers to help prevent the misuse of their social security number or individual taxpayer identification number on fraudulent federal income tax returns. An IPPIN is known only to the taxpayer and the IRS initially designed for confirmed victims of tax related identity theft. The IPPIN program was expanded in 2021. See, I told you, I told you all this before, I told you the news before I read it here. But in any case, to include any taxpayer nationwide who wants the additional protection and security of using an IPPIN to file tax returns with the IRS, quote, preventing someone from filing a tax return under another person's name is the main reason we want people to have this special code, end quote, said IRS Acting Commissioner Doug O'Donnell, quote, we encourage people to apply for the code when the system opens up in January. This step provides an extra line of protection for taxpayers and their tax return, end quote. An IPPIN helps the IRS verify a taxpayer's identity and accept their federal income tax returns, regardless of whether they are filing electronically or on paper, the online get an IPPIN tool at irs.gov forward slash IPPIN. There's a link to that here, displays the taxpayers IPPIN. Any participating taxpayer will use the tool in each subsequent year to obtain a new number. So that's what you would think has to happen. You would think if you want a valid social security number, it's going to have to change periodically, which I know is kind of a pain, but that's what they're doing with the IPPIN. So you don't have the same number for the next 100 years or whatever into whatever you probably not going to live 100 years, but maybe because like medical science is changing and everything. But in any case, a long period of time with ever increasing access and people weaseling into your information and new and creative ways to rob you, you might want to have a changing identification number from time to time, you know, that might help. Any case, the IRS urges any IPPIN applicant previously rejected during the identity authentication process to try applying again in 2023. The authentication process has been refined and improved enabling many taxpayers screened out in the past to have a better chance of passing the authentication process. The Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee or the ETAAC, which I know sounds like AA for like extraterrestrials or something. It's an AA club or something, but no, it's actually the Administrative Advisory Committee. There might be some ETs with some alcoholic problems that are also getting together and working those out, but any case, whatever. Earlier this year highlighted the importance of the IPPIN to taxpayers and tax professionals. Quote, the IPPIN is the number one security tool currently available to taxpayers from the IRS and quote, the Independent Advisory Group said in its annual report to Congress quote, this tool is the key to making it more difficult for criminals to file false tax returns in the name of the taxpayer. In our view, the benefits of increased IPPIN use are many end quote problem solved, done the ETAAC extraterrestrial alcoholic anonymous club. No, I'm just joking. That's nothing. They solved the problem though. They've got it. They've got the answer. They also recommended the IRS continue highlight and promote the IPPIN through a public awareness effort. As part of this effort, the IRS is highlighting the IPPIN as part of a nationwide tax security awareness week. The IRS also continues to raise awareness about special items, including publication, five, three, six, seven IPPIN opt-in program for taxpayers. There's a link to that here in English and Spanish. You can read it in Espanol if you prefer so that tax professionals can print and share the IPPIN information with clients. Special posters are also available in English and Spanish. Now the problem solved before they had the posters. I was still, I was still skeptical, but now you can get a poster. Sweet. Replace that whatever you got on your wall of like whatever. Key points about IPPIN program before applying. Keep these key points in mind about the IPPIN program for 2023. They get an IPPIN to a schedule to launch on January 9th, 2023. It's the fastest and easiest way to get an IPPIN. It is also the only option that immediately reveals the IPPIN to taxpayers. So you get it immediately. That immediate gratification of having this new number be sweet. It's like a lottery number except it doesn't really have any likelihood of winning you money or anything. But anyways, therefore the IRS urges everyone to try to get the IPPIN tool before pursuing other options. No identity theft affidavit is required for taxpayers opting and anyone who voluntarily applies for an IPPIN does not need to file form 1439 identity theft affidavit with the IRS. Now this was probably the formal, the former process before they extended the program to having other people use it. So in other words, if someone actually already stole your identity and filed a fraudulent tax return and you have to go through the painful process of trying to fix that and say, hey, it wasn't me IRS. That was my crazy Uncle Joe. That was my crazy cracked out Uncle Joe filed a tax return trying to steal my refund. So and you got to fix that. Then you might have to file a form 1439 identity theft affidavit. But if someone hasn't stole your identity and you want to preemptively stop crazy cracked out Uncle Joe from stealing your identity and trying to get your refund, then you could try to get the IPPIN and make sure that that he doesn't get access to it. So an IPPIN is valid for year for one year. This means that each January, any participating taxpayer must obtain a newly generated IPPIN. That's kind of one of the points of the new social security kind of type number, the IPPIN. Because again, if you just have the same number for a whole bunch of years, it's likely given the increase in internet capacities that and people trying to steal your data like crazy that it'll be stolen fairly shortly. So you want to change it fairly often. So be sure to enter the IPPIN on any return, whether it is filed electronically or on paper. This includes any amended returns or returns for prior years doing so will help avoid processing delays or having the return rejected by the IRS. Anyone with a social security number in SSN or individual taxpayer identification number otherwise known as an ITIN who can verify their identity is eligible for an IPPIN opt-in program. Any eligible family member can get an IPPIN. This includes the primary taxpayer, the person listed first on a tax return, the secondary taxpayer, a joint return, the person listed second on the return, or any other dependence. So notice that when you're filing the tax return, all the people that are on one tax return, which means if you file a joint return, you've got us two spouses involved and you have to list one before the other. I know it's possibly sexist, but you could list, you know, the female before or the wife or whatever. You can list them however, one and two. You got to have two spouses on there. One has to be on the top, kind of. And then you might also have dependents and they all have social security numbers. And if anybody steals their social security numbers and files a fraudulent tax return before you file your tax return with them on as a spouse or a dependent, then you're going to run into the same problems. So you can do the same IPPIN thing, you know, to try to safeguard all of the information. So, you know, crazy Uncle Joe could pull together the whole family and, you know, try to file a hundred tax returns based on everyone's stuff or whatever. So never reveal an IPPIN to anyone. The only exception is a taxpayer who uses a trusted tax professional to file their return. Even then, only share the IPPIN with the trusted tax pros when it is time to sign and submit the return. The IRS will never ask for an IPPIN. Remember to watch out phone calls, emails and texts requesting an IPPIN, our scams. Third parties offering to assist taxpayers and establish or regain access to IRS online accounts and asking for the taxpayers personal information, including address, social security number or individual identification number, IT, ITIN and photo identification. Use this information to sell to others or file fraudulent tax returns, open credit accounts and more. So it's painful when someone, you know, kind of steals your stuff like that, violates your trust and whatnot. But that's what people are doing. That's like what 90% of the internet is. So you've got to be aware of that. So identity theft victims should still fill out an ID theft affidavit. Any confirmed tax-related identity theft victim still needs to file form 1439 with the IRS if the agency rejects their e-file tax return due to duplicate social security number filings. So clearly what's going to happen if someone steals your identity, files a fraudulent tax return, Uncle Joe steals the whole family's identity, files like 20 fraudulent tax returns and tries to collect out a bunch of refunds based on the increase in the credits that are refundable portions. Well then when you try to file the tax return, it's going to bounce it back and say, hey look, someone's already used this social security number. That's when you find out Uncle Joe, he's done it again. So the IRS will then investigate their case. Once the fraudulent tax return is removed from their account, the IRS will automatically mail an IPPIN to the confirmed victim at the start of the following calendar year because the security risks confirmed identity theft victims cannot opt in of the IPPIN program. So options for people who can't pass the online authentication process. So two options are available for people who cannot pass the IRS online identity authentication process. One involves filing form 15227 and the other requires a visit to an IRS taxpayer assistance center. So again, you can do like the automatic kind of easy process. If that doesn't work, you can try to file the form 15227 or you can try to talk to someone in person. There's a link to the IRS taxpayer assistance centers, the TACs here. Unlike the online option, both of these options involve for security reasons a delay in receiving an IPPIN. Form 15227, for processing year 2023 individuals with an adjusted gross income of $73,000 or less and those filing jointly with an adjusted gross income AGI of $146,000 or less with access to a telephone can complete form 15227. There's a link to that here and either mail or fax it to the IRS. An IRS representative will then call them to verify their identity with a series of questions. Taxpayers choosing this option who pass the identity authorize the authentication process will generally receive their IPPIN in about a month. IRS taxpayer assistance center, any taxpayer who is ineligible to file form 15227 may make an appointment to visit an IRS taxpayer assistance center at TAC. Anyone using this option must bring two forms of picture identification because this is in person identity verification and IPPIN will be mailed to the taxpayer after their visit. Usually allow three weeks for delivery to find the nearest TAC use the IRS local office locator. There's a link to that here online tool or you can call 844-545-5640. I won't say that a hundred times because there'll be a link to this in the description. For more details and to learn more about this year's National Tax Security Awareness Week efforts you can visit IRS.gov forward slash security summit. There's a link to that here. There's a link to all this stuff here. There'll be a link to this in the description.