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I’m assuming you are in the U.S. and need to verify tax ID numbers to be included on information returns (e.g., Form 1099) to the Internal Revenue Service, rath
by wsh 10y ago
I’m assuming you are in the U.S. and need to verify tax ID numbers to be included on information returns (e.g., Form 1099) to the Internal Revenue Service, rather than for employment eligibility or credit decisions, for which E-Verify (https://www.uscis.gov/e-verify https://www.uscis.gov/e-verify) or a credit reporting agency might be more appropriate.
I’m aware of only one authoritative source for this, the IRS’s own “Interactive and Bulk On-Line Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) Matching Programs,” which are free of charge and described in Publication 2108A:
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p2108a.pdf https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p2108a.pdf
As explained in section 14, “Enrolled users may TIN Match in one of two ways:
“a) Interactively – a user can submit up to 25 name/TIN combinations at a time during a session, and receive a response within 5 seconds.
“b) Bulk – users may download .txt files composed of up to 100,000 name/TIN combinations and receive a response from IRS within 24 hrs.”
There is more information in section 3.42.8.7 of the Internal Revenue Manual:
https://www.irs.gov/irm/part3/irm_03-042-008.html#d0e1571 https://www.irs.gov/irm/part3/irm_03-042-008.html#d0e1571
The IRS allows third parties to act as authorized agents, and I expect this is what many companies offering TIN verification are doing. It’s up to you to decide if the value they add is worth their fees and the risks of sharing sensitive information (like SSNs for sole proprietors) with a third party.