IRS Will Soon Require Selfies (and a lot more) for Online Access

[CousinIT]

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/01/irs-will-soon-require-selfies-for-online-access/

If you created an online account to manage your tax records with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS), those login credentials will cease to work later this year. The agency says that by the summer of 2022, the only way to log in to irs.gov will be through ID.me, an online identity verification service that requires applicants to submit copies of bills and identity documents, as well as a live video feed of their faces via a mobile device.

. . .Over the years, I’ve tried to stress the importance of creating accounts online tied to your various identity, financial and communications services before identity thieves do it for you. But all of those places where you should “Plant Your Flag” conduct identity verification in an automated fashion, using entirely static data points about consumers that have been breached many times over (SSNs, DoBs, etc).

Love it or hate it, ID.me is likely to become one of those places where Americans need to plant their flag and mark their territory, if for no other reason than it will probably be needed at some point to manage your relationship with the federal government and/or your state. And given the potential time investment needed to successfully create an ID.me account, it might be a good idea to do that before you’re forced to do so at the last minute (such as waiting until the eleventh hour to pay your quarterly or annual estimated taxes).

[BigmanPigman]

1. I can't get through to them

and have tried since last April. Sure, let's make the IRS even more difficult for poor people to access.

[jonstl08]

9. Blame the GOP

I work as a tax preparer and the GOP in 2016-19 reduced the IRS budget by billions so they lack enforcement. Reason why the audits are not getting done and millions of tax cheats are getting away with it.

[BigmanPigman]

12. Didn't Biden say he was giving more $$$ to the IRS recently?

That certainly would help a ton.

[pnwest]

11. Google "How to speak directly to an IRS agent"

First result should be AmyNorthardCPA.com. She has a step by step that will get you to a human.

[BigmanPigman]

15. How do I speak with the state IRS?

I can't get through to them and had to register for a pin # in order to be able to "chat" with someone for help. I just got that pin number about 30 minites ago. I am still waiting for my CA stimulus checks. I just got my $600 federal stimulus check in the mail today too. Wow!!! It was supposed to be here last April. It never came in my IRS refund, in fact I never got anything from my 2021 taxes.

[pnwest]

22. Oh, I don't know about the state...haven't had to try.

WA has no state tax.

That is CRAZY that you just now got the $600?! But kinda good news in the sense that even though it’s slow, they are plodding along. (I’m a tax preparer, that’s actually very helpful info! I can tell my clients to hang in there and wait, it will come.)

Did you file your taxes yourself? With a service? Efile or on paper? Did you get any kind of letter from the IRS explaining why no refund yet?

[BigmanPigman]

23. The IRS didn't do it, I did it.

I filed on-line since I am low-income. The IRS told me last April that since I never got the $600 check it would be faster to get it in my normal refund than it would be for them to track it down and issue a new one. I called them over and over in March and April and got nowhere with them issuing a replacement check so I took this route. I never got any tax refund and I waited and waited. Finally I had enough and tried one more time a few weeks ago. For some reason the IRS person was able to put it through this time. I have no idea why. Nothing had changed. Tell your clients that the IRS won't do it. They have to do it themselves.

The state refund was supposed to have been sent in Sept. I read some place a few weeks ago that it would take 45 days to get it. Meanwhile, the new ones for $1,100 were sent out recently. I doubt I'll get that without working for it too.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Can you guess what I was doing Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning?

I logged onto my work computer at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. I found that my credentials had been accepted, and it was time for my teleconference. ID.me works around the clock. We had our teleconference at 6:20 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

[haele]

3. I hate ID.me. Can never get it to work right.

Either I'm too old, or just not hip enough for it to recognize me when it comes to the face recognition. Two part authentication works fine, it just can't recognize my saggy pasty-white face without makeup.
ID.me scans my face and goes "Hello Ms. Mashed Potato"

Haele

[dweller]

4. I like Touch ID

Wish they would use that
☝🏼


✌🏻

[AllaN01Bear]

5. the digital devide is a thing and will continue to be a thing .yet another

devision between the haves and the have nots .

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. ID.me is a fucking nightmare.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. How do I get away from all this?

I'm no novice, but it takes more time to manage what I have already.

[LetsGoBiden]

8. It took the IRS

It took the IRS literally from 2018 till the spring of 2020 to process my child earned income tax credit When It was all said and done the $2100 refund turned into $3500 with the interest they owed me. the check in the mail was the happiest day in a few years

[NameAlreadyTaken]

10. id.me is a giant pain. They require me to do a

live video call with them because the documents I submitted weren't enough. And I have all my documents in order - even my original Social Security card I was issued 55 years ago. I submitted everything, yet it's still not good enough for them. I waited in line for the call but it was going to be a 2 hour wait.

[LetsGoBiden]

13. So is this a public service announcement

So is this a public service announcementIs this a public service announcement to make sure you get your taxes filed early before this new Measure kicks in lol because it sounds like a huge pain on top of the pain it already is

[CousinIT]

21. Don't think it affects your tax filing ie: you don't need to have the account to file your taxes nt

[left-of-center2012]

16. OK - I completed it

WHAT A PAIN IN THE A** !!!

First I had to scan my government photo ID to my laptop, front and back.
My current laptop and old printer weren't synced, so I had to do that first.

Then I had to upload front and back images of a photo ID. Took four attempts before they recognized the photos.
.
Then IRS texted me codes to continue; had to scan my face with my laptop's webcam,
and was told Move up, Move down, Move closer, Too close … MULTIPLE TIMES.

Whole process took me about 30 minutes.
It wanted all types of info (address, etc) and afterward 'ID.me' said they'd use my info for 'other sites'.
WTF ?

[ShazamIam]

17. My question, is this another privatized service where it is mandated and paid for with tax funds

a fee mandated by law is a tax.

If it is privatized part of that tax is for profit and they will have low paid no-benefits workers, not better paid and benefited federal workers.

I don't see how letting a privatized company control the information is going to be safe.

Privatization of government services is part of the long time wage suppression and kind of legalized graft.

The big lie was it would save the government money. What it really does is instead of many well paid workers the tax money goes to a very small number of contract holders.

edit: rmvs

[Sgent]

25. It is an identity verifier and provider

the government one is login.gov -- but it doesn't have near the capabilities of the private contractor which is larger, has 2fa capabilities, and facial matching. The government certainly has done a shit job of security in the past (see OPM), so I don't favor one over the other.

[ShazamIam]

26. sure thing as if private business have done any better than the gov plus they have

all the pissed off underpaid and overworked staff on the for profit side.Have you missed all the times the private folks lost all our data like the big credit collecting dump back in 2016. All the credit rating data on everyone dumped on the open internet?

[drmeow]

18. Oh, great

SSN already chokes when I try to login with Login.gov because I had created an account with an email years ago and it apparently can't merge those two. Now there's going to be yet another login mechanism which is likely to choke as well!

[totodeinhere]

29. And one more password to remember. n/t

[totodeinhere]

19. I think this is a big mistake. They are going to make us jump through so many hoops in order to log

on to their website that a lot of people will just give up. A lot of less tech savvy people will have no idea how to upload those documents.

[Vinca]

27. That was my first thought. I'm too dumb for my smart phone. It's true. I have

no idea how to text someone if I happened to want to do such a thing. I figured out how to use the flashlight and that's about it. LOL.

[totodeinhere]

28. Of course you are joking but seriously you are not dumb.

Tech savviness is more an aptitude than a function of intelligence. (If that makes you feel any better. Haha.)

[Igel]

20. "Soon."

Ran into that last Tuesday, when trying to access info for my kid's college application. While at work until 7 pm (I'm just a high school teacher, but 7 pm is a bit late--6:30 am to 5 pm, not so much). It was due the next day. He got his mother's to look for the tax return. Otherwise, couldn't she be bothered. She had her future musical career as an Americana star to worry about.

BTW, she's also a high-school teacher.

[Thtwudbeme]

24. Further widening the digital divide

Many do not have access to smart phones, iPads- whatever- to do this.

Horrible idea.

[csziggy]

30. For the last two years I have been resisting putting a camera on my desktop computer

For Zoom. Since the only group I am a member of that uses Zoom is a hobby group, it hasn't been worth it to install a camera and microphone - plus I never wanted to have those devices.

Now if I need to talk to the IRS, I'd have to go out and buy them and install them. Rather than put devices I don't need otherwise I will let my accountant handle all of that. Too bad my old accountant retired - he worked for the IRS before he set up his private business and was great with IRS agents even when I got audited four years in a row.

[ForgedCrank]

31. Yea, no thanks.

They can just get letters in the mail if they want something from me. I don't care how many months it takes