Have You Received an Identity Verification Letter From the Indiana Department of Revenue?

By Brandon Cook, CPA | Partner, Tax Services Group

Earlier in April, the Indiana Department of Revenue (IDR) began sending identity verification letters to random taxpayers before processing their income tax refund claims. These letters are completely legitimate and are intended to be an additional security measure to crack down on potential identity theft and false tax refund claims.

If you’ve electronically filed your tax return with the State of Indiana more than four weeks ago and still haven’t received your tax refund, it’s possible your account has been randomly selected for identity verification. The letter indicates that in order to finish the processing of your tax return and to release your refund, you must go onto the state’s website and answer a few personal questions.

Once logged in to take the “quiz” you will be asked four questions that all are fairly personal to you. For example, one of the questions may be for you to pick out an address that has some past meaning to you from a list of addresses supplied. Another question may be to verify birth months of spouses, children, parents, etc… While someone attempting to steal your identity may know one or two of the answers, it’s doubtful they would know all four. Additionally, you only have three minutes to take the test once logged in, so it prevents an outsider from doing research on each question asked.

More information on the identity verification process can also be found on the State of Indiana’s website at http://www.in.gov/dor/4922.htm.