The IRS has provided unique personal identification numbers (PIN) to those who are victims of identity theft as added security. When you log into your IRS account to file your taxes, you must provide this unique PIN. Beginning in 2021, the IRS is now allowing anyone to receive a PIN voluntarily with or without documented identity theft. The IRS has had many issues in the past with criminals filing false tax returns under someone else and stealing their tax returns. This is easy to do since the IRS experienced a large data breach leaking the personal information of over 700,000 tax filers back in 2015. The IRS for years has relied on a system to identify users by asking personal questions such as “what bank did you open in 2010?” or “what street do you live on?”. With so many data breaches, a criminal can easily find the answers to all of these online and pretend to be someone they’re not to gain access to the system. I recommend you go set up a PIN number today before a criminal sets one up for you. Write it down in a safe place and make a backup of it as well. Do not store it online in an insecure manner. The PIN is valid for one calendar year and the IP PIN Tool to set up the pin is usually unavailable between mid-November to mid-January
