Identity theft of an individual’s personal information can enable a thief to erroneously obtain a taxpayer’s refund and cause delays in the processing of a legitimate tax return. Several years ago, the IRS started a pilot program permitting taxpayers in Florida and Georgia, as well as the District of Columbia—locations with the highest incidents of tax identity theft—to obtain an identity protection personal identification number (IP PIN). Now, this programhas been expanded to California, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, and Rhode Island. Eventually, this program will be expanded to all states.
Even if you are not in any of these areas, you can obtain an IP PIN if:
A husband and wife who are required to live apart from each other by the terms of a decree of separate maintenance. Payments under the decree are deductible by the payor and taxable to the payee as alimony.