Did Someone Change Your IRS Pin?

Check your IRS account for suspicious activity

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⚙️ Part of my series on Automating Cybersecurity Metrics. The Code.

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I had to extend my taxes this year because I was so overloaded with work at the point I went to do them I didn’t have a lot of time. I tried to use TurboTax but clearly the program had a bug because it would randomly change my state taxes from something like $500 to $15,000. I had to edit this post because the ultimate number Turbo Tax came up with matched neither of the original numbers.

Not being familiar with the state and its tax laws or having the time to deal with it, I submitted a tax extension until I had time to get some help and figure it out. I had a complicated tax situation this year after selling a house, moving, and a number of other issues so it was a more complicated year than normal.

Strangely, the IRS never cashed a very large check I sent them. I logged in at the IRS web site to see if there was a record of the tax payment I sent in to go along with the extension paperwork finally, and there was no record of the payment, the extension or anything.

I called the IRS, sat on hold for about two hours, and got to someone who couldn’t help me. He ended transferring me to someone else. I submitted the option to get a call back from a number in West Virginia and finally got a person who said she could see that my payment was received but not cashed. She did not know why the check was not cashed. It has been about three months now. But she reassured me everything was OK and that I could submit my taxes.

I wrote earlier how I how you should set up your IRS account in advance so you don’t have problems later here:

The odd thing was, I went through so many hoops to get that pin number as I wrote about previously, that I had documented in a safe place very specifically. I KNOW I have the right number in my records after all the madness I went through to get it.

When I went to submit my taxes, they got rejected. Luckily, I noticed the rejection. It said I didn’t have my pin on the IRS form so I resubmitted it about three times but it kept getting rejected. Because the federal taxes got rejected so did the state taxes.

I’m so busy and was overwhelmed at that moment. I thought I was going to call the IRS and sit on hold for another three hours. However, I found out that there is a way to retrieve the pin. I went ahead and did that online.

Along the way I found a message that said I had requested a new pin last December and the IRS sent me a letter. I don’t recall making that request. If anyone at the IRS is reading this, you might want to look into bogus pin requests. For anyone who thinks they may get a refund in an upcoming year, it seems like you might want to keep tabs on your pin starting around December the year prior to make sure someone doesn’t get it.

In my case, if anyone wants to pay my exorbitant tax bill, be my guest, caused in part by the issues I had with a bank that I wrote about in the related post, and an incorrect filing by an investment company, be my guest.

By the way, if you are moving to a new state, never have a cash out of stock sent to the new state if the taxes are higher there when you are still technically a resident of the old state. They will use the address where you had the check sent as your residence. In my case, I was in a huge hurry to close a deal so I was in the new state and had the check sent to a temporary mailing address. I had one in each state during the transition. Live and learn. That mistake cost me a large sum of money. Live and learn. Georgia income tax is not cheap compared to Washington's no income tax. Phew.

The last time I requested or did anything with my pin was last year in about May when I was trying to complete a home sale. The bank did not get my business for the reasons I wrote about. I had no other reason to request a pin after that point. I forget things sometimes but I’m 99% sure that someone else must have requested that pin and now they have it. I suppose I’ll have to get a new one but maybe they will pay my taxes for me. :)

In the meantime, I have once again submitted the tax return, in hopes that it will be successfully processed. I’m hoping I don’t have to pay some fines of fees due to the Turbo tax bug. In the end, Turbo Tax gave me a number that was neither of the prior numbers consistently, so it looks like they fixed something.

If you are one of the lucky ones expecting a tax return, make sure you check your pin prior to the point where someone could obtain it and use it next year and get a new one if you suspect someone else has changed your existing pin.

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Teri Radichel | © 2nd Sight Lab 2022

About Teri Radichel:
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⭐️ Author: Cybersecurity Books
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⭐️ Certifications: SANS ~ GSE 240
⭐️ Education: BA Business, Master of Software Engineering, Master of Infosec
⭐️ Company: Penetration Tests, Assessments, Phone Consulting ~ 2nd Sight Lab

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