IRS Adds Security Steps For Tax Pros to Receive Transcripts

In an email to tax professionals on April 5, the IRS said it’s making changes that will impact how practitioners obtain a client’s tax transcripts, as part of the agency’s efforts to combat identity theft and protect taxpayers’ personal information.

Starting April 8, tax professionals must now call the Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) to request transcripts to be deposited into their Secure Object Repository (SOR). While PPS has been the primary avenue for these requests, other IRS toll-free lines will no longer offer the SOR as a delivery method, the agency said.

In addition, tax professionals need to pass the current required authentication and also verify their Short Identification (ID). The Short ID is a unique eight- to 10-character alphanumeric code that is systemically assigned when an IRS account is established. This Short ID is visible when the tax professional logs in to their e-Services SOR.