IRS Requires Personal Information When Verifying Taxpayer Identity
February 27, 2018
On Jan. 3, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) instituted a new identity verification process requiring third parties calling on behalf of a taxpayer to verify their identity by providing personal information such as their Social Security Number and date of birth.
Changes made to the Internal Revenue Manual Section (IRM) 21.1.3.3, titled “Third Party (POA/TIA/F706) Authentication, also require anyone who calls the IRS to provide their name, company's taxpayers identification number (TIN) and their Centralized Authorization File (CAF) number. Previously, callers only had to provide their name and company TIN.
According to reports, the addition additional information is being requested to fight fraud and mitigate risk. The change came without warning and the IRS has not yet provided an update to the IRM on its website. It’s been reported the IRS plans to detail changes in the near future.
To eliminate multiple employees from submitting their personal information, some title companies have appointed a point person to call the IRS. ALTA and several state land title associations are considering submitting a letter to the IRS.
Some alternative solutions that don’t require as much information from the caller include providing certain digits of their SSN, inputting the SSN on a phone keypad rather than verbally stating the number or answering a series of security questions.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].