How to use irs.gov without getting lost
The eight places on the IRS site that answer most questions, how to search it, and why the official site is the only one worth trusting with your data.
Quick answers
- Is there one page on irs.gov that shows everything about me?
- Yes, the individual online account. It holds the balance by year, payment history, payment plans, transcripts and digital notices, and it is the only place any of that appears.
- How do I know an IRS website is genuine?
- The address ends in irs.gov. The IRS does not start contact by email, text or social media asking for personal or financial details, and its own pages never charge a fee to look at a form.
- What can I do on the IRS site without signing in?
- Check refund status, look up a notice number, read forms and instructions, use the question tool, and make a payment from a bank account. Anything showing your own balance needs a sign-in.
Almost everything a taxpayer needs from the IRS lives on eight pages. Knowing which one answers which question turns irs.gov from a maze into a short list.
The eight destinations
Where's My Refund? tracks a filed return through received, approved and sent. It needs your Social Security number, filing status and the exact refund amount, and it is the same status a phone agent reads, which is why Refund still processing starts there too.
Your Online Account is the only place your own record appears: the balance for each year, payment history, payment plans, transcripts and digital copies of notices. It needs a one-time identity check, described in Creating an IRS online account.
Direct Pay takes a payment straight from a checking or savings account, free and with no sign-in. How to pay the IRS covers it, and the routes that cost money, step by step.
The Online Payment Agreement application is where a balance you cannot clear becomes an installment arrangement without a phone call. You owe more than you can pay right now covers which plan fits.
The Interactive Tax Assistant answers rules questions. You pick a topic and enter basic information, and it walks the same tests a preparer would, which makes it the fastest way to settle a question about eligibility or filing status.
Forms & Instructions holds every form, its instructions and its prior-year versions. Search by the form number and take the instructions as well as the form, because the thresholds and worksheets live there.
Understanding your IRS notice or letter turns a notice number into an explanation of what the IRS wants and by when. You got a letter from the IRS covers how to read the letter itself.
IRS Free File is guided commercial software offered at no charge for adjusted gross income of $89,000 or less. Above that limit, Free File Fillable Forms is available at any income level, though it gives you electronic forms rather than an interview.
Find a form, a notice or an answer
- Start at irs.gov rather than a search engine, so the first thing you see is the page and not an advertisement.
- For a form, open Forms & Instructions, search by the form number, and take the instructions as well as the form.
- For a letter, open Understanding your IRS notice or letter and use the Notices & Letters Search box. The CP or LTR number is printed in the right corner of the letter.
- For a rules question, open the Interactive Tax Assistant, choose a topic and enter the basic information it asks for.
- For anything about your own account, sign in rather than searching, because your balances and notices are never on a public page.
If it doesn't work
- The search returns an internal manual page. The Internal Revenue Manual is the agency's own procedure text, not guidance for taxpayers. Add the form number or the notice number to the search, or start from the topic pages above instead.
- A tool says information is unavailable. That usually means the return has not posted yet rather than that anything is wrong. Wait for the return to appear in your online account before trusting a refund status.
- The answer is in a publication rather than a web page. Publications are the long form of most rules, and the search on the forms and instructions page finds them by number or subject.
- The Interactive Tax Assistant asks for details you would rather not give. What you enter there is anonymous and is used only to answer the question you asked; the IRS does not store it against your record.
What you'll need
- Nothing at all to browse, read forms or look up a notice.
- A sign-in and a completed identity check for the account tools, covered in Creating an IRS online account.
- Your Social Security number, filing status and exact refund amount for refund status.
The official site is the only safe one
The address ends in irs.gov, and nothing else is the IRS. Lookalike sites sell what the real one gives away, usually by charging a fee to file a form or to look up a refund, and no genuine IRS page charges to look at a form.
The IRS also does not open contact through email, a text message or a social media channel to ask for personal or financial details. Real contact starts with a letter, which is what You got a letter from the IRS is about. A message that arrives any other way asking you to confirm details is not from the IRS, whatever it looks like.
The app, and other languages
IRS2Go is the official mobile app, published in English and Spanish through the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. It checks refund status with no sign-in, using the same three details the website asks for.
It does not take payments itself. For those it finds the options and hands you off, so the money still moves through Direct Pay, a card processor or your online account. It also links to free filing options and to the topics people ask about most. The site itself carries material in Spanish and several other languages.