EFIN...ETIN help

I have not heard of an ETIN before. EFIN's have 6 digits, or back when I got mine, they had 6 digits.

The letter from IRS probably refers to their Tax Pros website. You go thru a long process of keying in secret codes every time you log onto that website to check clients' tax info, but after it becomes routine to you it's a great way to find out who paid how much on their ES's, and if people are on extension, you can find out in the summer if there are some 1099's your client forgot to give you -- etc.

The Tax Pros E-Services website is:

http://www.irs.gov/taxpros/art...

This is where you go to log in, change your password, etc. Every 6 months you have to change your password, and if you forget to do it, they make you go thru the whole long paper process of getting another login ID and password all over again. So give yourself a reminder for 5.5 months from now, to change your password pro-actively, and make life easy on yourself.

Even if you rarely use E-Services, I would suggest getting on there now, changing your password, and writing it down in a safe place (maybe even putting it in your safe deposit box after tax season is over) and then make a slight change to your password during September, and again next February or March, etc.

I suggest that you call the helpful IRS e-services people and have them walk you through the process. Their number is 866-255-0654.