The IRS will not initiate email contact with you without your consent. When you enroll in any of the IRS online applications via IRS.gov, we will confirm your email address and your personal information/identity during the electronic authentication process. If you should receive an email “from the IRS” that you did not already consent to receiving, do not click on any links. Instead, forward that email to phishing@irs.gov. Review Reporting Phishing and Online Scams for further information. Since unsecured email can be intercepted, we will only send you general information via unsecured email. Without secure encryption, you should not email us sensitive personal information such as your bank account, charge card, or Social Security number. Instead use a secure method such as your online IRS account or another IRS online application on IRS.gov. Due to a policy exceptionPDF through October 31, 2025, an IRS employee may — with your consent — communicate with you by secured email about an ongoing case. If this is your situation, you can reply to that employee by secured email, but you should follow the procedures for protecting your personal information as described in our procedures for sending and receiving emails securely. Emails that meet the definition of records in the Federal Records Act (44 U.S.C. § 3101) are covered under the same disposition schedule as all other federal records. This means that we will preserve and keep emails you send us based on how those emails meet the definition of federal records. We delete emails that are not records when no longer needed. Return to Privacy Policy page
