To access your tax documents online, you will soon need to submit a video selfie.
Will tax season soon require you to get all your W-2s in order … and get a haircut? Well, not exactly, but you might want to get your camera ready nonetheless.
The Internal Revenue Service has partnered with the third-party identity verification company ID.me in order to better protect users’ security and reduce fraud, and part of the verification process will include uploading a selfie, as reported by CNBC.
Pictures To Prove It
Starting this summer, you will need to register with ID.me and create an account in order to log onto the IRS’s website.
Once in, you will be able to access applications such as the Child Tax Credit Update Portal, or you can view your tax transcript and payment agreement with the agency. Additionally, you can also use it to verify your credit history, schedule payments, and approve (or not) authorization requests from tax professionals.
Additional IRS applications are set to transition to “the new method over the course of 2022,” according to CNET.
What the means is unclear at the moment, though the IRS has said you won’t be required to make an account to file your tax return, just to access the myriad other features on the agency’s site.
“The IRS emphasizes taxpayers can pay or file their taxes without submitting a selfie or other information to a third-party identity verification company,” the agency said in a statement. “Tax payments can be made from a bank account, by credit card or by other means without the use of facial recognition technology or registering for an account.”
ID.me For You And Me
This is not the IRS’s first rodeo with ID.me, as the company was previously enlisted last year to enroll or unenroll recipients of the advance child tax credit payments.
If you’ve already signed up for ID.me, then you should be good to go. If you have an IRS account, that will work until the summer, and then you will need to switch over. So you don’t need to worry about it for filing last year’s taxes (you might enough to worry about in that department), though you’re likely going to need to take care of making an account sooner rather than later.
How To Sign Up With ID.me
The ID.me verification process is fairly involved, which is likely why the IRS partnered with it. Here is what you will need to do.
Go to the Sign In or Create a New Account page on the IRS’ website, and then click “Create a New Account.”Enter your e-mail address and create a password. As is typical these days, the password needs to be at least eight characters, with at least one capital letter, one lowercase letter and a number. You’ll then need to confirm your e-mail address.Enable multi-factor authentication to prove its you each time you sign in, and choose either a text message or a phone call for verification.Upload a photo of or take a picture of a photo ID. You can choose a U.S. passport book, state driver’s license, or U.S. passport card. You will need to upload photos of the front and the back.Then, you will need to upload a video selfie, either through your phone or via a webcam. Get your face close to the camera, and use portrait mode if using your phone. You will get a green checkmark when your video selfie is complete.Confirm your Social Security number.ID.me will send you a text message, asking you to authorize the IRS accessing your account. You should be good to go, but if you run into issues, you will be handed off to a “Trusted Referee,” which is a live person that will review your application online via video call. And now you are all set to enjoy the wonders of the IRS’s online portal. Enjoy!
