ssn NAMES AND NUMBERS

[Chief]

I've seen this before but don't remember it. How many letters of a person's name both first and last are matched up with the social security number. If a baby has a first name of four letters how many of those letters are matched in the efile. The 4th letter has a a punctuation mark that I dont know how to input.

[Lion]

What I was taught nearly 20 years ago by HRB, so that may have changed drastically now with the IRS's upgraded computer systems, is that matching is with the SSN and the first four letters of the last name. Birthdate for dependents, and maybe for e-filing. Had a colleague a few years ago that really butchered the first names of everyone in the family on one return, foreign family with much info over the phone. Family was furious, but it e-filed just fine.

[Koss]

Name Control

According to the IRS e-file website--

Name Control and TINs identify taxpayers, spouses and dependents. A Name Control is the first four significant letters of an individual taxpayer’s last name as recorded by the Social Security Administration (SSA) or the first four letters/numbers of a business name.
[emphasis supplied]

I don't think you have to worry too much about the first name. Just leave the punctuation out, and roll with it.

First four significant letters. Great. Apparently, the IRS has determined that some letters of the alphabet are not significant. But they didn't bother to tell us which ones. [LMAO]

Unless that refers to punctuation.

It's actually very common. What about Irish names, like O'Hara?

Here's the link to the citation above:

http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=205385,00.html

BMK

[Koss]

Irish Names

Everyone remember the case from two years ago, when the US Tax Court ruled that gender-reassignment surgery is a legitimate form of medical treatment, rejecting the IRS position that it was cosmetic surgery?

The court found, on the basis of expert testimony, that gender-reassignment surgery is a recognized treatment for a mental illness known as gender identity disorder.

The case is O'Donnabhain v. Commissioner, 134 T.C. No. 4.

The petitioner was born Robert Donovan. Prior to the surgery, she changed her name to Rhiannon G. O'Donnabhain.

The pronunciation of the name sounds like "O'Donovan." This is apparently an older version of the name that reflects the original Gaelic spelling.

BMK

[oceanlovin'ea]

There was an article in the Lakeland Ledger yesterday about the tax fraud that has been happening and how local agencies would like to help but IRS won't share information with them so they can help. A local 66 year old woman who has lived in the area for over 40 years and is retired had her SSN stolen and the refund was sent to Montana.

The article said that IRS said the returns are processed by SSN only. They don't match names with the SSN. So someone could send in a return in a bogus name and my SSN and have return sent to some other address and IRS would just process it and send it.
It did say that sometimes they will put phony bank info and then the system will kick it out and mail a check to the address on the return. But NO checking until there is a complaint.

It also said that some of these people are just making up numbers. It isn't like they said I'll take this person SSN, but they just make up a number and see if it goes through.

Linda, EA