We got these letters. Since we have to file jointly, both of us have to answer the questions.
They pull info from all sorts of sources going back decades. Well, either their info is wrong, or my wife’s memory is going, but she failed two sets of four questions. They don’t mention you only get two chances. Now we have to either call a number (during government employee business hours, most likely) or send in 7 pieces of documentation, including birth certificate, driver license, social security card, full tax return (which they already have), etc.
The questions were ridiculous. Zip code of the address she lived at with her first husband right out of college. Amount of taxes on the house in 2014 (firstly, the house is in my name, so why should she know the taxes. Secondly, the county was late with tax billing in 2013 and didn’t send out the bills that would normally get paid in 2013 until 2014. So what number do they want - they amount of tax I was billed and paid in 2014 for the year 2015, the amount of tax I was assessed in 2014 but paid in 2013 and 2014, or the total amount of tax I paid in 2014 regardless of what tax year it was due in? In any event, none of their choices matched an of those.) Color of a car she bought in 1994 and we haven’t owned for years.
What is particularly ironic, is I’ve lived in the same house for 25 years. Worked for the same employer for 15. My wife has lived here 7 consecutive years and a few on top of that. The same address is on all our W2s and every form of income we have. Other than requesting a direct deposit (to the same account I’ve requested every year for decades), everything on our return cross references with our address, which cross references to the tax records they pulled, the vehicle information they pulled, the driver license information they pulled. How could I possibly be committing fraud or identity theft? About the only thing I can think of would be for them to mail a paper check to the only address we have if they’re all that worried, or call the bank and verify our account has the same address on it.
I forgot to mention. We filed our fed and state at the same time (e-file). The letter said processing the refund takes 3 weeks after you pass their identity shenanigans. I got my fed refund the day I got the Ohio letter. So now I’m looking at a minimum of another month to get my Ohio refund because of their incompetent antics.