Matching SS# and Names

[Corduroy Frog]

To what extent does the IRS match Names to SS#.  Possibility matching Dates of Birth as well?

[BrewOne]

Are you talking about efile?  first four letters of the last name.  I'm not certain about birthdate matching causing an e-file reject, something sticks in my brain about getting the month and year correct.

[Max W]

The IRS does match birthdates, if the return is e-filed.

[Pacun]

It only matches when needed or maybe it doesn't match it at all against your efile.  I believe the IRS has the birthdate from SS administration and the software has a flag when client turns 13, 17, 50, 55, 55.5, 62... and 70 or 72. 

The reason I say that it is because a client had a 12 years old son and for some reason believe the child was born a year later. So when I entered his date of birth was one year off. When the client turn 16, I requested full child tax credit (I forget what was at that time), the IRS say... no credit because child was 17 years during tax year. All years prior the IRS had not mention that the date was wrong. 

I have never had an efile rejected because someone's date has been entered wrong, have you?

[mcb39]

4 hours ago, Max W said:

The IRS does match birthdates, if the return is e-filed.

I had one rejected already this year because the birthdate was wrong.  We had entered a 3 instead of a 5 so the efile grabs that right away.

[DANRVAN]

4 hours ago, Max W said:

The IRS does match birthdates, if the return is e-filed.

Not always, I was reviewing past three returns for new clients.  Prior preparer had been using 12/31/xx for husband and 12/31/yy for wife which is carried to front page of the Oregon returns.  Years of birth were correct but not dates, and they were accepted for e-file by fed and state.

Also had another case where dates and year of birth were off for both spouses, but had been accepted in the past by fed and state.

[jklcpa]

I had my sister in law's birthday off by one day and by one year too!  For almost 50 years I thought she and my brother were born the same year but is actually a year younger.   Their return has never rejected since e-filing began.

[mcb39]

12 hours ago, jklcpa said:

I had my sister in law's birthday off by one day and by one year too!  For almost 50 years I thought she and my brother were born the same year but is actually a year younger.   Their return has never rejected since e-filing began.

Perhaps they are watching children closer than adults because of the credits.  Any time we have had a rejection because of a DOB, it has been a child.

[Abby Normal]

Back when DOB was required for efiling, in the 90s, the IRS had a birth date that was one day off from what the client said their birthday was. After it rejected I tried one day before and it went through. Perhaps this is why they IRS stopped verifying birth dates for efiling.

[Lee B]

My understanding is that the IRS uses the DOB information in the SSA Database?

[Lion EA]

Decades ago when I was at Block, they told us the SSN + 1st 4 letters of last name -- and for CHILDREN (dependents?), birthdates. The only reject I ever had for birthdates was for children: new client with 2 kids, and I switched the birthdates. Reject. Made the correction and e-filed.

[Pacun]

8 hours ago, mcb39 said:

Perhaps they are watching children closer than adults because of the credits.  Any time we have had a rejection because of a DOB, it has been a child.

Not only that, they only check the date when meaningful... for example, when the child becomes 14 and no longer qualifies for daycare expenses, or when they turn 17 and they no longer qualify for $2,000 child tax credit.  

[Sara EA]

Adults have tax milestones too, like when they turn 59 1/2 and 65.

[Max W]

20 hours ago, Pacun said:

Not only that, they only check the date when meaningful... for example, when the child becomes 14 and no longer qualifies for daycare expenses, or when they turn 17 and they no longer qualify for $2,000 child tax credit.  

You are thinking like a human.  Software works differently.  It's broken down into modules and there would be a module for CTC, CCC, RMD, etc.  Each has several lines of query.  for example with CTC, there would be a module for each dependent.  All that stuff from form 8867 , 15 lines are queried. What you check off as 'yes' or 'no', in the computer sw comes out as 'true' or 'false'.  In the cas of CTC and the other modules requiring birthdate, the computer sw has an algorithm.  It would be something like this -  CD - YrOB > 16.  Current year - yr of birth is greater than 16.  If this is  True, then the credit gets denied.  If it is  false, then it passes.   The point is that all Birth years are compared, not any selected ones.    The actual software is likely written a little differently, but thi is the basic gist of what's going on.