How to prevent an identity thief from filing a tax return in your name

Hopefully you have already set-up two factor authentication (2FA) on your most important accounts! This extra layer of defense is a great way to reduce the likelihood that a cybercriminal can access your email, financial accounts, social media accounts, and more. As of January 2020, it’s now possible to add 2FA to another very important aspect of your identity - your tax return!

In the same way that an identity thief could use your social security number and other personal information to open a bank account, credit card, or loan, they could also file a tax return in your name. An identity thief’s motivation for doing this would be to fraudulently collect your tax refund! According to the Department of Justice, the IRS estimated that 5 million tax returns totaling $30 billion worth of refunds were filed using stolen identities in the 2013 tax filing season.

Historically, the only way to prevent this from happening to you was if you were already confirmed to be a victim of identity theft. If you were, you were eligible to apply for the IRS Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN) program. After completing the application, you were provided with a unique numerical PIN to include on your tax return so that the IRS could be sure that the return was being filed by you as opposed to an identity thief. Even though you don’t have an “account” with the IRS, this PIN was acting as a form of two factor authentication!

The great news is that, as of January 2021, it’s now possible for anyone (not just people who have already been the victims of identity theft) to apply for an Identity Protection PIN. The process only takes 5-10 minutes and could save you countless hours of time and stress come tax season!