Within 180 days from submitting this form, you will receive correspondence from the IRS in the mail stating that an “Identity Theft Indicator” has been placed on your account.

In your "Identity Theft Indicator Confirmation Letter" there are instructions to go to the IRS website to create an account and then obtain an Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP Pin) to submit when filing your taxes. This will eliminate the delay in processing your return.

Because the IRS website uses Identity Verification Software, you will need to unfreeze your credit with Equifax to create an account to obtain the IP Pin. Although unfreezing your credit is instantaneous, we recommend lifting the freeze for one week in case you fail to answer the identifiable questions correctly, the IRS will not allow you a second chance until 24 hours later.

The pin is immediately generated for you when you complete the online activation. You will use this pin when you file your taxes and will receive a new pin automatically mid-January each year.