For their tax returns to be accessible, the IRS requires that Americans reveal their identities to private companies.
A new kind of digital identification, requiring the user to submit their personal data to a private company in Virginia – including a live video of their face from their cell phone or computer webcam – will be the only way Americans can create an account with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) starting by the summer of 2022.
Old login credentials won’t work any longer. The only way to log in to irs.gov is by using ID.me. It is an online identity verification system that’s run by a McLean company just outside the Capital Beltway. This was according to an investigative journalist Brian KrebsThis week, he created an account.
“The service requires applicants to supply a great deal more information than typically requested for online verification schemes, such as scans of their driver’s license or other government-issued ID, copies of utility or insurance bills, and details about their mobile phone service,”Krebs wrote.
To verify your phone number you must have a cell or landline telephone number. You cannot use voice-over-IP such as Skype. In Krebs’s case, the verification process stalled, requiring a live chat – and a note he would have to wait for three and a half hours for someone to contact him.
According to the private company, ID.me is used by more than half of US States for identifying fraudulent benefit applications. Krebs was informed by a private company that it has 64 million registered users. “roughly 145,000”Sign up daily
Krebs acknowledged that although it was not an easy process, Krebs says he is now able to get an account. “will probably be needed at some point to manage your relationship with the federal government and/or your state.”
The story was first reported on Thursday by ZeroHedge. “The IRS are now trying to require facial recognition to view your tax returns. This is America, not China,” saidTroy Nehls is a Texas Republican.
The tax authority is not the first government agency to steer citizens toward ID.me, though the Social Security Administration – another entity Americans are basically mandated to deal with – also allows the use of Login.gov, a government-provided identity service and ID.me’s chief competitor.
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