 TITLE: Why Is There an Inquiry From the IRS on My Credit Report? CONTENT: What Does It Mean if I See an Inquiry From the IRS on My Credit Report?\n-----------------------------------------------------------------------\nAn inquiry from the IRS shouldn't necessarily be a cause for concern.\nWhile the IRS has the legal authority to access your credit file for reasons related to collections investigations, it's common for the agency to request help from a credit bureau simply to verify a person's identity. If an IRS inquiry on your credit report concerns you, it's best to consult a tax professional.\nIf the IRS uses credit report information to verify your identity, it will cause a soft inquiry to appear on your credit report. Soft inquiries will be removed from your report after about two years and will not affect your credit score. The inquiry will only appear on the file maintained by whichever credit bureau responded to the IRS request. So if the IRS requested the inquiry through Experian, for instance, that activity will not show up on your TransUnion or Equifax credit reports.\nThe IRS works with a credit bureau to verify your identity by asking the bureau to generate security questions based on the information in your credit report. For example, you might be asked about previous addresses, when you opened certain accounts and which lenders you've borrowed from in the past. When this is done, the IRS won't see your credit report, and the credit bureau won't see your tax information.\nThe questions you'll be asked are multiple choice, so if they're referencing an account you opened a while ago, the different options might jog your memory. If you don't know the answers to some of the questions, that could be an indicator of fraudulent activity on accounts under your name.\nBut there are several reasons the information in these questions might be unfamiliar. For instance, you may have applied for credit with one lender not realizing that it was owned by another company, and the parent company may be the one listed on your report. If you're an authorized user on someone else's account, the details might not be familiar to you either.\nIf you are concerned about identity theft, you can reduce the risk of fraud on your tax or credit accounts by regularly checking your transaction records and requesting your free credit report each year to look for any unfamiliar account activity. Additionally, you may want to enroll in Experian IdentityWorks℠, which includes identity theft and dark web monitoring, along with alerts about any suspicious activity linked to your credit report. END