Does the IRS really think americans are going to write their SSN on their payment checks to them?

I owe the IRS a few dollars this year. However I was shocked when they requested that I put my SSN on the check!!! I simply enclosed the payment slip with my check and sent it off!

Public Comments

1. Yes! When you make the IRS *guess* as to who you are, they may put your payment on the tax account of the first person they find with your name. They ought to check the address as well, but when they are under a time constraint or you moved, well, gee, they have to put it somewhere. (The check is separated from the return so they can't just look at your tax return to get the number. If you get bills, you will spend HOURS on hold trying to get the IRS to hunt the payment down.)
2. Of course, it's the government!
3. Yes this is very common since you have no account number your case is your SSN# I have to write my SSN# on my check when I sent off my payment for student loan check to the feds.
4. You could always put xxx-xx- and then the last four numbers. That would ID your check if it gets separated, but not list your ss# for the world to see as it goes back through the banking system.
5. If you don't want to mail a payment, you can always use www.pay1040.com. If you leave your SSN off the check, you run a slight risk of them misplacing the check from the return and then you're relying on a person looking you up to determine which account they need to post the payment to.
6. It is better that you do include your SSN on the check, if the check gets detached from the slip IRS employees will have no idea where to apply the payment. Which will delay your payment until they do a research for your SSN. So don't be upset if your payment is applied to your account in a timely manner, you just caused a problem for yourself.