Verifying for the IRS using Self-Service – ID.me Help Center

As an IRS technology provider, ID.me is here to help verify your identity.

If you already have an existing ID.me or IRS account, you can access IRS tools and applications by selecting Sign in with ID.me or Sign in with an existing IRS username and completing additional steps.

For those verifying their identity with ID.me for the first time, you can choose to verify your identity with Self-Service or with a live Video Chat Agent. This article explains how to verify for the IRS using self-service.

Note: Individuals acting on behalf of a business, organization, non-profit, or other entity must still verify their own identity before accessing IRS services online.

What you need to verify

To verify your identity using self-service, you will need:

A mobile phone that has a camera or a computer with a webcam.
Email address
Government-issued photo ID (driver's license, state ID, passport, passport card)
Social Security number

Tip: Follow our best practices to take photos of your documents.

Note: If you live outside of the United States and don’t have a US phone number, mailing address, or Social Security number, you can still verify your identity. During the verification process, you can select specific links if you don’t have US-based information.

1. Sign in to IRS

To get started verifying for the IRS:

Go to the IRS application login page.
Select Sign in with ID.me.

If you've never set up an account with ID.me, select Create account and confirm your email to begin. Do not create more than one account.

IRS sign in screen.png

Set up multi-factor authentication

If you are creating a new account, you must set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) to continue with your verification. For instructions to set up MFA, select one of the following MFA methods:

After you set up MFA, continue to Verify using Self-Service below.

2. Verify using Self-Service

After you are signed in to your ID.me account, you can verify your identity using self-service, which will guide you through the process. To verify your identity using self-service:

When choosing how to verify your identity, select Self-Service.
Follow the prompts to upload your US driver’s license or state ID, or select Change Document to upload a passport or passport card. Learn how to take photos of your documents.
Take and submit a video selfie. Your selfie will only be used to confirm that the person in the selfie matches your government ID. Your selfie and biometric data will be deleted within 24 hours of verification, but you may request that ID.me delete your Biometric Data at any time.

If you’re taking a selfie using your smartphone and you don’t have a US phone number, select I don’t have a US phone number.
Enter your Social Security number. If you don’t have a Social Security number, select I don’t have a Social Security number.
Review and confirm that all of your information is accurate, then select Yes. After ID.me verifies your identity you will receive a confirmation message as a way to protect you from fraud.

If you don’t have a US address, select I don’t have a US address.
Select Allow to finish your identity verification process.

I couldn’t verify using Self-Service

If you are not able to complete the verification process using self-service, you must finish verifying on a video call with an ID.me Video Chat Agent. For full steps, visit Verifying your identity on a video call.