Logging Into IRS.gov

It's relatively new. It started about a year and a half ago. There was a period of overlap when both the old and new ways worked, but now the old way does not work anymore. But setting up ID.me is a one-time exercise. Once you do it, signing in to your account is as simple as it used to be.

Bob Sandler

When I file 990-N on behalf of specific nonprofits, I have a choice of using login.gov. Upon submitting the notice, I have to log out of both the IRS system and the login.gov system separately.

login.gov is available for use with filing a limited number of notices. It was supposed to be expanded to more IRS filing systems but that's not happening any time soon.

To notify Dun & Bradstreet of address changes of businesses, I had to photograph my picture ID and my face. This is going to become more and more common.

I look forward to Big Brother requiring cheek swaps to analyze DNA to make positive identification.

Yup, me too. It was simple, and it came with 2-factor authentication if I recall correctly, so the need for the new system is not clear to me.

The old way does not work, or at least it didn't for me when I tried it out of curiosity in the first week of this year, using the credentials that had worked in September. It didn't say my credentials were wrong, but rather something to the effect that that form of sign-in was no longer accepted and ID.me was required.

This has been coming for a while. Some time around the middle of last year, when it was still optional, I started to set up an ID.me account, but it failed verification on the photo part. I gave up because it was still optional -- then.

On 2023-12-28 I got a letter 4869C saying that the old account could no longer be used, and I would _have_ to create an ID.me account, but the letter also said that service would not be available till 2024-

01-08 because of weeks-long system maintenance. That made the timing pretty tight for getting my final 2023 estimated tax payment in. But fortunately whatever had glitched last year was fixed. (And the system had saved the information I'd already entered, so I could just edit rather than starting from scratch.)

The process took me under an hour, using my web browser _and_ a smartphone with photo and video capability. An option exists for live help from a person, but I suspect the wait time would be long.

And after I'd gone through that, the _only_ service that was working was making an online payment. It was not possible to see the status of my account, look at past tax returns, etc. There were menu links for a bunch of things, but every one said the service wasn't available.

This is what happens when the Republicans in Congress get their way and starve the IRS of funds. The CBO found that giving the IRS more money would reduce the deficit because tax collection would be more efficient and more tax cheats would be caught. But the Republican Party doesn't want more tax cheats to be caught, and we can all guess why.

"Adam H. Kerman" snipped-for-privacy@chinet.com wrote in news:uo99f1$25qut$1@dont- email.me:

I share your attitude. I started to apply for the ID.me, but when it got to asking for my passport, etc., I bugged out. I only used irs.gov to pay taxes. I may just mail in vouchers. Don't know yet.

So, did you get an ID.me?

Stan Brown <the_stan snipped-for-privacy@fastmail.fm wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.individual.net:

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which is 274 pages, allocated $79.4 billion to the IRS. The Fiscal Reduction Act of 2023 rescinded $1.4 billion, leaving the IRS $78.0 billion, much of which has nothing to do with enforcement.

At any rate, it's estimated by the Congressional Budget Office that the $80 billion in additional funding will bring in $180 billion in taxes, for a net of $100 billion, over 10 years, to help reduce the deficit. Big deal. Not much when compared to today's deficit of $509 billion, and especially the national debt of $34 trillion, both of which will be much larger 10 years from now. The debt is more important to reduce.

The Inflation Reduction Act was just window dressing, which only increases government employment.

Neither political party cares one bit about fiscal responsibility. After all, it's not their money.

Boris snipped-for-privacy@invalid.com wrote in news:XnsB0FEC9E52A461nospaminvalidcom@135.181.20.170:

Since Reagan brought in trickle-down economics, deficits have been reduced under Democratic presidents and increased under Republican presidents. That's not not caring a bit.

You mean to identify myself to Dun & Bradstreet? Hm. I don't recall who their third-party contractor was.

With IRS, on the handful of electronic filings that accept use of login.gov for identification process, it's been less intrusive than ID.me.