IRS takes additional steps to protect taxpayer data; plans to end faxing and third-party mailings of certain tax transcripts

[Elrod]

IR-2019-101, June 4, 2019 — As part of its ongoing efforts to protect taxpayers from identity thieves, the IRS today announced it will stop its tax transcript faxing service in June and will amend the Form 4506 series to end third-party mailing of tax returns and transcripts in July.

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-takes-additional-steps-to-protect-taxpayer-data-plans-to-end-faxing-and-third-party-mailings-of-certain-tax-transcripts

[Abby Normal]

On 6/5/2019 at 8:56 AM, Elrod said:

amend the Form 4506 series to end third-party mailing of tax returns

From the linked page:

Third parties who use these forms for income verification have other alternatives. The IRS offers an Income Verification Express Service (IVES) which has several hundred participants, who, with proper authorization, order transcripts. Lenders or higher education institutions can either contract with existing IVES participants or become IVES participants themselves. The tax transcript is an official IRS record. Taxpayers may choose to provide transcripts to requestors instead of authorizing the third party to request these transcripts from the IRS on their behalf.