DictionaryIdentity and taxes

IRS Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN): what it means

The IP PIN (Identity Protection PIN) is a six-digit number from the IRS that keeps anyone else from filing a tax return with your Social Security number or ITIN. Only you and the IRS know it.

In Spanish it is

IP PIN (PIN de protección de identidad)

Also written as: IP PIN · Identity Protection Personal Identification Number

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Verified on October 17, 2026

1 official source

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The full explanation

Anyone with an SSN or ITIN who can verify their identity can get one: online, by application or in person at an IRS office. It changes every year, and you must use it on every federal return you file that year. The IRS will never ask for your IP PIN by phone, email or text message: that is a scam.

An example

After someone used her ITIN on a fake return, Claudia requests an IP PIN through her IRS online account. Each year she looks it up in her account and gives it to her tax preparer right before filing.

You will see it in…

Your tax software, when it asks for the number
IRS notice CP01A, if the IRS enrolled you after identity theft
Your IRS online account, in your profile

Words that go with it

You will rarely see this word alone. These are the ones that show up with it on the same papers.

More guides that use “IRS Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)”

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Official sources

We sum up what these official sources say, in plain words. We add no rules they do not state; when a rule changes, the definition and its date change.

1. IRS · Get an identity protection PIN (external site) · in English · Verified on October 17, 2026