As of January 2011, iPhone and Android Smartphone users can use the IRS2Go App to access their personal income tax information, tax tips and news from the Internal Revenue Service. This is a service designed and rolled out by IRS itself, not some 3rd party app developer, so there should have minimum security concern, but that is not necessarily the case.
IRS2Go Smartphone Application Boasts of 3 Main Capabilities:
1.Status Check of Individual Federal Income Tax Refund.
While the interface may look simplistic compared to its website counterpart, it is no loess capable in disseminating information. Once the screen captures the necessary Social Security number, filing status (e.g. single versus joint filing), and the exact refund amount, the app does the backend communication with servers at the IRS servers and your corresponding refund status would get displayed instantly.
Of course this same information can still be retrieved at the IRS’s official website through the “Get Refund Status” tool. One marked contrast between the two versions of information dissemination services is that our PC browser access the official web page that is fully encrypted (this can be demonstrated by the prefix “https” on the url) while the smartphone app does not hint on such protection or encryption. According to the IRS reports news release, it mentioned that the Social Security number which user enters will be masked and encrypted, which is good, but it does not repeat the same message on the subsequent entries such as the filing status and the refund amount expected.
If you have sharp sense on security, you would want to worry about if your information is really protected, it seems apparent to me that this IRS2Go app has not really measured up in term of security requirement as compared to that of IRS’s website.
2.Subscription to IRS Tax Tips.
One particular feature that I like is the publishing of daily income tax tips. This service is available throughout the filing season. Subscribed users will get these tips dropped into their email inboxes.
3.Subscription to the IRS’ Twitter feed.
2 Twitter messages will appear on the App at a time. However, if you are hungry fro more, you can go to the official IRS Twitter feed, @IRSnews, to subscribe for regular and continuous feed.
So Is IRS2Go the Real Thing?
I am agreeable that this App is helpful for average taxpayers in finding out their tax refund status but I am less forgiving in term of security layer provided. Does that mean telco providers can now sneak into our filing status and subsequently refund data? If the answer is positive, what more could those crafty hackers do? And in the case of lost phone, would the next owner have access to this income tax return information?
Downloading the IRS2Go App
Consistent with all other apps developed on these two popular smartphone platform, users can either go to the Apple App Store or the Android Marketplace to find the download links.