A victim of identity theft or a person authorized to obtain the identity theft victim’s tax information may request a redacted copy (one with some information blacked-out) of a fraudulent return that was filed and accepted by the IRS using the identity theft victim’s name and Social Security Number.

Due to federal privacy laws, the victim’s name and SSN must be listed as either the primary or secondary taxpayer on the fraudulent return or otherwise the IRS cannot disclose the return information. For this same reason, the IRS cannot disclose information about any tax return to any person listed only as a dependent. Partial or full redaction will protect additional possible victims on the return. However, there will be enough data provided for the taxpayer to determine how his or her personal information was fraudulently used.