States Requiring License Info

[TAXNJ]

Well said

As you should well know - the primary purpose is to prevent identity theft fraud. Is it perfect? No.
As you should also know - it only works for e-filed returns.
I'm not the state authorities - ask them.

It just does not make sense when "there's a code to enter that states "Not Applicable".

Seems that without making mandatory that every taxpayer has a state issued I.D. it seems to defeat the purpose to defeat ldentity theft. Then again making mandatory that every taxpayer has a state issued I.D opens up all kinds of issues.

[dtlee]

It just does not make sense when "there's a code to enter that states "Not Applicable".

Seems that without making mandatory that every taxpayer has a state issued I.D. it seems to defeat the purpose to defeat ldentity theft. Then again making mandatory that every taxpayer has a state issued I.D opens up all kinds of issues.

Your comments make sense but the effort appears to be to reduce the potential for identity theft, not to create a perfect solution. There has been national resistance to requiring every American to have and maintain a photo ID card and the fact that many do not have one is what encourages us to consider it un-American to require an ID card to vote (as one client said to me, "So I can vote as many times as I want to without an ID, but to pay my taxes I need a picture ID?!?!).

According to New York State, they use multiple methods to assess potential identity theft and assign a weight to each. They will not automatically reject a return with the same employers/payers, address, and bank direct deposit information just because it does not have photo ID information. I presume that if a photo ID is present but everything else changes, they may still have an issue with the return (An elderly person in a nursing home may have a license stolen and never know it). New York also asks for specific information about their license/ID that is not as easily obtained electronically because it is rarely collected. Thus, I may have a client who has a picture ID (honestly, few of my clients actually look like their picture), but the picture ID may be stolen or forged. Even if the ID number and dates are correct, New York asks for the additional information to detect that it may not be the true and current ID. I had a client who got a replacement license after "losing" her original and then found her original. She did not know that it would matter on her tax return which document she used. Had she used the original, it would likely have caused a problem since she had reported it lost or stolen.

This stuff will never be perfect (at least that is the goal of the identity thieves).

[Rapid Robert]

"So I can vote as many times as I want to without an ID, but to pay my taxes I need a picture ID?!?!).

That's what's so funny about this. Why would a tax return showing a balance due be suspected of identity theft? Unless someone was trying to prank you, but so far it seems the bad guys are more interested in money than personal vendettas.