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A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

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Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#21

Post by jrochkind1 »

> Five years later and more than $187 million in government investment later, however, it still hasn’t been widely rolled out.

I know anything like this is going to be more complicated than it seems. Integration of lots of legacy systems, of which the federla government is probably about as complicated as it gets, with the most security-sensitive application possible.

Still, and I'm really not an expert here, but I am astonished that $187 million could possibly not be enough to get this done. If it can't be done for $187 million, it seems likely it will never be done.

But, intended with real humility and not sarcasm, I would love to hear more from someone who has more context. $187 million just seems astonishing.

Or maybe the quote is wrong that it "hasn't been widely rolled out"?

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#22

Post by skibidibipiti »

photochemsyn wrote: post #20

Yes, there's a solution, it's called one's social security number. If people are fraudulently abusing the social security number system, stealing other people's numbers and so on, then they should be prosecuted for fraud. Implementing a Chinese-style facial recognition and social credit score program in order to keep tabs on everyone is just another authoritarian fantasy project, and government incompetence during th…

[dead]

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#23

Post by LightHugger »

photochemsyn wrote: post #20

Yes, there's a solution, it's called one's social security number. If people are fraudulently abusing the social security number system, stealing other people's numbers and so on, then they should be prosecuted for fraud. Implementing a Chinese-style facial recognition and social credit score program in order to keep tabs on everyone is just another authoritarian fantasy project, and government incompetence during th…

a social security number is not called that because it has anything to do with security, or is a good idea to use for that purpose...

your comment is equivalent to telling developers to stop wasting time on endless security fixes when we should just make computer hacking illegal, and prosecute people for it.

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#24

Post by akira2501 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #21

> Five years later and more than $187 million in government investment later, however, it still hasn’t been widely rolled out. I know anything like this is going to be more complicated than it seems. Integration of lots of legacy systems, of which the federla government is probably about as complicated as it gets, with the most security-sensitive application possible. Still, and I'm really not an expert here, but I a…

> with the most security-sensitive application possible.

I certainly don't see my tax returns that way.. is that a commonly held view?

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#25

Post by woodruffw »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #21

> Five years later and more than $187 million in government investment later, however, it still hasn’t been widely rolled out. I know anything like this is going to be more complicated than it seems. Integration of lots of legacy systems, of which the federla government is probably about as complicated as it gets, with the most security-sensitive application possible. Still, and I'm really not an expert here, but I a…

> Or maybe the quote is wrong that it "hasn't been widely rolled out"?

I think it's wrong in some senses: Login.gov has been rolled out to the SSA, OSHA, Treasury, RRB, VA, DHS, and quite a few other orgs and agencies. There's no one good metric for these things, but if you measure it by org/agency size and/or budget, Login.gov looks very good.

I agree that $187 million is an eye-popping number, and I wish we had the ability to put it into context: it's entirely possible that $187 million spent means that each agency is saving $X million in separate/legacy maintenance each year.

Edit: Another framing is that, if the GSA's user predictions are correct[1], Login.gov will end up costing a little under $2 USD per user.

[1]: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/it-modernization/2022/06/gsa-...

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#26

Post by mike_d »

netfortius wrote: post #13

Why couldn't they design and offer alternatives similar to the French tax services (alongside many other French online services) [1]? [1] https://franceconnect.gouv.fr/franceconnect

Because it is the law in the United States that agencies must transition to the centrally managed login.gov. ID.me never should have been rolled out in the first place.

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#27

Post by ROTMetro »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #5
joenathanone wrote: post #2

Those seems like it should be an easy problem to solve, creating a login system isn't exactly rocket science.

Disclaimer: I interviewed with the USDS team that was embedded in IRS circa 2015-2016 to solve identity pre-ID.me, thoughts and opinions are my own. I have tried to get info out of IRS on the topic using FOIA requests, but they have not been forthcoming. I think there is heartburn over the whole ID.me situation (which they rushed into due to return fraud that occurred due to lacking knowledge based proofing systems,…

Please not the post office. Small town post offices are so vindictive with no oversite giving them this power would be horrific. My house has not received mail for years now because my mother had cancer and could not get her mail timely enough for them. The turned her mailbox off and made her open a PO box if she wanted mail. When I later moved to the home I inherited I was not and have not been able to restore service, and the USPS just redirects me to the local post office :(

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#28

Post by ROTMetro »

EvanAnderson wrote: post #6
exabrial wrote: post #3

how about everyone gets a pgp key to establish a long term online identity... kinda like keybase sought to do. Not so great for sending secret messages, but really great for an identity toehold.

The USPS would be a great fit for this. Thru have delivery and address / identity verification infrastructure and lots of local physical presence. They could issue tokens and act as the root CA for the PKI.

The USPS would be horrible for this. Small town post offices are too vindictive and not professional enough to be given this level of authority/power.

Re: A year after outcry, IRS still doesn’t offer taxpayers alternative to ID.me

#29

Post by [deleted] »

akira2501 wrote: post #24
jrochkind1 wrote: post #21

> Five years later and more than $187 million in government investment later, however, it still hasn’t been widely rolled out. I know anything like this is going to be more complicated than it seems. Integration of lots of legacy systems, of which the federla government is probably about as complicated as it gets, with the most security-sensitive application possible. Still, and I'm really not an expert here, but I a…

> with the most security-sensitive application possible. I certainly don't see my tax returns that way.. is that a commonly held view?

[deleted]
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