Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., reintroduced Thursday the Taxpayer Identity Theft Protection Act, legislation she introduced in 2016 requiring the IRS to issue an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN) to any individual taxpayer who requests one.
Under the bill, the IP PIN would provide taxpayers another level of security as they submit their sensitive personal and financial information to the IRS.
As it stands now, Wagner said, IP PINs “are only available to victims of tax-related identity theft and individuals who previously received one from the IRS as part of a limited pilot program.”
Wagner, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, noted that the IRS estimated recently that more than 100 million Americans have had their personal identification stolen by criminal hackers. “This is after the September Equifax bombshell that over 145 million U.S. consumers had been impacted by their breach,” Wagner said.