Answered

Failed KBA - Failure lockout after 1 attempt - IRS allows 3

The IRS guidelines only require a paper/wet ink signature on a 1040/KBA after 3 failed attempts. It seems SSR requires a wet ink signature after 1 failed KBA attempt. Sometimes people just genuinely make a mistake and would like to try again for the esignature. Could this be updated to the 3 fails before wet ink requirement? Thank you.

 

https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/frequently-asked-questions-for-irs-efile-signature-authorization

What is identity verification failure?

When an ERO uses tax preparation software to electronically sign Form 8878 or 8879, the software enables identity verification using knowledge based authentication questions. If the taxpayer fails to provide the correct answers to the knowledge based authentication questions after three attempts, the ERO must get the taxpayer’s handwritten signature.  

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  • Official comment

    Good morning and thank you for reaching out to us. The KBA process the client goes through allows for 3 attempts to answer a total of 3/5 questions correctly. I will include some information below on this process.

    What is the process to pass KBA Verification?

    The taxpayer will be asked a series of 5 questions. They need to answer 3 out of 5 correctly. If they are unable to answer 3 out of 5 correctly another series of 5 questions will be presented. The taxpayer will have a total of 3 series of questions to answer 3 out of 5 correctly. If they fail all 3 series, SafeSend Returns will mandate the taxpayer to download the E-sign forms and manually sign per IRS guidelines. 

    Here is our help article that details this process https://safesendreturns.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010993774-Knowledge-Based-Authentication-KBA-Question-Generation 

    Feel free to reach out to support@safesend.com if you ever have any questions!

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  • YES!

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  • Chelsy, thank you for providing some information. It would be nice if the user tracking showed that. Right now it just shows KBA failed. It would be nice if it showed KBA attempt 1 - fail, attempt 2 - fail, etc. Would provide better context.

    I'll just add that from our prior KBA software, we have A LOT more failures with SafeSend Returns. Still a small overall percentage of the total but the failures are def higher with SSR.

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