IRS implements new fingerprinting course of for e-file

The Inside Income Service is planning to mandate a brand new digital fingerprinting course of for e-file functions for tax practitioners beginning Sept. 25.

In an e mail Wednesday to tax professionals, the IRS stated people could be required to make use of an IRS-authorized vendor for fingerprinting. Every new principal and accountable official listed on a brand new e-file utility or added to an current utility needing fingerprints might want to schedule an appointment with the IRS approved vendor. 

The cutoff date to mail paper fingerprint playing cards (Type FD-258) to the IRS is Aug. 15, 2022. The fingerprints playing cards additionally must be postmarked by August by that very same date, and the applying needs to be submitted previous to mailing the fingerprint playing cards. 

The IRS gained’t course of fingerprint playing cards postmarked after Aug. 15, 2022, the company warned. As well as, clients needing fingerprints might want to wait till Sept. 25 to schedule an digital fingerprinting appointment. On Sept. 25, 2022, they will schedule an appointment by accessing the scheduling hyperlink positioned on the e-file utility abstract web page. 

The Inside Income Service headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg

Directions for scheduling an appointment might be supplied upon submitting an e-file utility and on IRS.gov. The IRS plans to supply extra details about the brand new fingerprinting course of on Sept. 25. The Turn into an Licensed e-file Supplier web page on IRS.gov will supply probably the most up-to-date data.

The IRS has struggled to manage id theft and knowledge breaches inside its consumer self-service instruments like Get Transcript, and tax professionals have more and more discovered themselves focused by cybercriminals with phishing schemes in an effort to get entry to delicate consumer data. The fingerprinting course of is a method the IRS has tried to enhance its authentication procedures, whereas hoping to keep away from the sorts of controversies over biometric identification strategies that erupted earlier this 12 months after it started rolling out selfie expertise for accessing on-line taxpayer accounts. The IRS additionally plans emigrate its set of on-line providers for tax professionals to the third-party supplier ID.me this summer season regardless of objections being raised in Congress to the authentication firm (see story).