5 years, 10 months ago-
IRS Reference Code 9001: “Taxpayer accessed Refund Status using a secondary TIN. Refund Status could not be returned. Get a Primary TIN Analyze account and follow appropriate IRM.”
The IRS has an entire manual dedicated to errors and problems that they encounter during the course of doing business. Some of these codes are directly related to your tax return, and some are related to something else. For the most part, codes less than 2000 are related directly to your return. Anything higher (like code 9001), it’s related to something totally different – so right there, stop freaking out.
What IRS Reference Code 9001 Really Means
The actual code tells you exactly what it means – you filed a tax return that had multiple Social Security numbers attached to it. Typically, this is a husband and wife, but it could also include children as well (you never know, adult dependents maybe checking the status of the refund). When you file your tax return, you have to specify a primary taxpayer, and the spouse or children all are secondary.
If you log into Where’s My Refund or on the IRS App and try to use the secondary Social Security number, you’re going to get this error message.
What The IRS Says
The IRS established the “Where’s My Refund?” portal to allow taxpayers to check the status of their federal income tax return and refund. To access the portal you need three pieces of information: your Social Security Number or Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), your filing status, and the amount of the refund that you are expecting. This refund amount should be listed in whole dollars and must match the amount listed on your tax forms exactly.
Having IRS reference code 9001 is not an audit, and it shouldn’t concern taxpayers. It just means there was an attempt to access return or refund results using the wrong Social Security number or TIN.
Concerns About Identity Theft
We’ve seen a lot of people concerned about identity theft this year, and this is a possible flag for it. While the code itself is not an audit flag, we have heard about cases of people trying the wrong Social Security number too many times, and their return was put on hold until their identity could be verified.
So, before you go to WMR and start typing in the secondary Social Security number multiple times, stop, think, pull out a copy of your tax return, and do it the right way. Otherwise, you could see your refund delayed.
What You Need To Do
If you get IRS reference code 9001 when you log in, in most cases you need to do nothing. In fact, unless you have a really good reason to call the IRS, don’t.
First, the IRS is swamped with calls right now, and you could spend hours on the phone for nothing.
Second, if the IRS has a problem with your return, they will send you a letter describing the issue and the next steps. For most situations, you cannot resolve it over the phone with the IRS because of potential identity theft issues.
If you are getting this code and you are 100% positive that you are using the primary SSN, then you should consider calling the IRS or going into your local office. That is the only sign of potential identity theft that we’ve seen from IRS reference code 9001.
Use the thread below to discuss IRS Reference Code 9001. Connect with others that have an IRS reference code 9001 and keep us updated on what you find out!
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IRS Reference Code 9001 refers to an incorrect TIN number or primary social security number.
*9001-Systemic error/issue – Taxpayer accessed Refund Status using a secondary TIN. Refund Status could not be returned. Get a Primary TIN Analyze account and follow appropriate IRM.
If you are seeing Reference Code 9001 most likely your tax return has been selected to take part in the Taxpayer Protection Program(TPP). Sometimes you may have entered something incorrectly while checking your refund status on WMR. If something was keyed in incorrectly but close enough to your original information it could send signals of Identity Theft back to the computer system. All tax returns are processed through systemic verification and if the computer systems automated filters notice any refund fraud signals at any time during processing, your tax return could be selected to take part in TPP.
The IRS usually will issue 5071C Notice in the mail with a code and a phone number wanting you to verify information on your tax return. If you see this message for more than 21 days and never received any updates or letters in the mail then you may need to contact the IRS for more information.
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