Question

Feedback : Masking social security numbers when printing

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
March 7, 2021
5 replies
0 views

Hello, I've searched on the Net and in these forums but I don't see any ability to mask SSN when printing forms. I'm reluctant to send these forms over an email to another person without having to mask the SSN. Redacting the SSN via PDF editor or white outs is quite a painful process. I hope Intuit product managers are reading this forum and taking our enhancement requests in their future implementation list. As a programmer, I don't see this feature request would take more than a half hour to implement.

Ideally, it would be helpful to have an ability to mask part of the SSN as well as entire 9 digits.

Thanks!

TurboTax Home & Biz Windows

X

xmasbaby0

Employee

TurboTax does not ever recommend emailing tax returns since email is not a secure way to send someone your tax return. Who are you emailing a tax return to?

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

Critter-3

You will need to password protect any email with PII on it ... so who are you sending this return to ? https://home.treasury.gov/how-to-encryptpassword-protect-microsoft-office-and-adobe-acrobat-pdf-documents#:~:text=Add%20a%20password%20to%20Adobe,password%20in%20the%20corresponding%20field.

Do they have a secure portal you can use ? Or can you simply mail them the return or drop it off in person ?

G

gsj5Author

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm sending my past taxes to my new CPA. Regardless of whom I'm sending and how, this would be very useful feature to have.

I've already password protected pdf file, though it would be good to have TurboTax give that option while printing!

M

Mike9241

why not just remove your SSN or put in a dummy number.

Critter-3

@gsj5

When you choose to save/print the PDF it is no longer in the TT program's hands. View/print/save are all functions of the PDF reader installed on your computer and it is your responsibility to protect the PDF using any means necessary.

K

kathyg

I have the same feature request. I am doing the taxes for my 85-year-old mother and want to send a pdf version to her to review (cross country). It would be nice to be able to mask her name/social etc. I will take the suggestion from someone else and put in dummy info.

S

SweetieJean

Employee

You said both printing and email. If you print, just redact the SSN.

Critter-3

Using the PDF reader or the email service you can password protect the file. Google search how to do it with your PDF reader programs or email system.

K

kwishon

I strongly agree with this feature request. It should be fairly simple to have a toggle in the software to print SSNs in their entirety or redacted.

Z

ZoltanB45

It is a common feature that professional tax preparers use when filing their client's tax return. Their software has that. Turbo Tax are self-prepared returns.

P

Pennewa

I think it is only a matter of time before Intuit is forced to provide this ability, either because the wise up on their own or they get sued. Virtually every financial institution masks SSNs on their tax forms when they mail them out. Sure Turbo Tax is not "mailing them out" but they are not letting their customers follow best practice in this regard and likely have some legal responsibility when their customers have losses as a result.

I

iOne

Employee

The only reason I have to shred the check prints I make at home, is because TT insists on putting the SSN on each page. PITA.

I use "Nitro PDF" to redact PDFs I email. That said the less that SSN gets out the better, even on random pdfs left in my recycle bin or in a deleted file on my hard drive.

Get with the program Intuit.