MyTax Illinois Security Guide

MyTax Illinois was developed, with your security in mind, to file your tax returns, make payments, and view your account information in a safe and secure manner. If you use MyTax Illinois to file a tax return, you should be aware that information received by the Illinois Department of Revenue from returns filed under the Illinois Income Tax Act and the Retailer's Occupation Tax Act (as well as most other Revenue Acts) is confidential. Accordingly, we will not disclose your tax return and account information except as required by law. However, if you choose to allow others access to your MyTax Illinois account, you do so at your own risk.

We protect the confidentiality of the tax information you provide.

MyTax Illinois requires a valid email address. We use your email address for Illinois Department of Revenue purposes only. This may be to send your authorization code when you sign up, to act as your signature on a return, or to verify your account. We do not share your email address with others or sell it for any purpose.

When you activate your MyTax Illinois account, you should be the "master", or primary user. Do not allow a tax preparer, accountant, or another person to be the "master" user on your account.

Allowing the ability to create secondary user logons
Before you can create secondary user logons yourself, or allow others to create secondary user accounts with access to your account, you must first allow the ability for new logons to be created.

To manage secondary logons for your account, select "Manage my profile," then "More…," and then in the "Other Users" panel, select "Manage Additional Logons." From this screen the Master on the account can control whether additional logons will be allowed, see other logons for this account, and create new usernames and passwords for additional users.

You may do this by setting "Allow" under "New Logons" to "Yes."

After you have enabled the ability to create secondary logons you may create additional logons by following the instructions below. Additionally, while you allow new logons to be created another person can create a logon to your account if they have your tax identification number and required account specific information.

NOTE: After the desired logons have been created, for security purposes you may wish to disallow the ability for additional logons to be created. See "Preventing additional logons from being created" below.

Creating additional logons
After you have allowed the ability for new logons to be created, you may create specific logons by

1. selecting "Manage my profile," then "More…," and then in the "Other Users" panel, select "Manage Additional Logons."
2. clicking "Add" in the "Logons" section, and
3. completing the information requested.  You will create a username and password for this person to use to logon to your account.
   

Preventing additional logons from being created

After you have allowed access to the people you choose, you can prevent additional logons from being created by

1. logging into your account,
2. selecting ”Logon Settings,”
3. selecting ”Manage Additional Logons,” and
4. setting ”Allow” under "New Logons" to "No."
   

Changing or removing the access level of others on your account
You can change or remove the access level of others on your account by

1. logging into your account,
2. selecting "Manage my profile," then "More…," and then in the "Other Users" panel, select "Manage Additional Logons."
3. It will show you who has access to your account and the level of access. You can change the access level for each individual on this table by clicking the logon name and then clicking "Change" in the "Settings" section. You can remove a person's access by clicking the logon name and then clicking "Deactivate Access" in the "Logon" section. 
   

Please keep in mind that MyTax Illinois contains your confidential tax information. It is important to keep your account login information in a secure place, and to monitor your account on a regular basis so that you are aware what activity is being conducted by those for whom you have provided access. Report any suspicious activity immediately to the Tax Fraud Hotline at 1 800 243-2811.

Your IL-PIN is a security number assigned specifically to your Illinois Individual Income Tax account. Please keep this number in a secure place. If you lose or forget your IL-PIN, you can look it up on MyTax Illinois here, or while you are filing your return.

Usernames must be unique to our system and cannot contain spaces. For example, if you enter “johndoe” while creating your username, but that username has already been created by another taxpayer, you will receive an error and be required to update your username to something unique such as “johndoe1”. It is important to keep this information in a secure place and not share it.

Passwords must contain:

• ✔ a minimum 8 characters, 
• ✔ both letters and numbers,
• ✔ upper & lower case letters, and
• ✔ special characters.

To create a secure password:

• Do not use numbers or letters in succession (e.g., 123456 or abcdefg)
• Do not use proper names ( e.g., your, your children’s, or your spouse’s name)
• Do not use names of familiar items ( e.g., your car or your street)
• Do not use important dates or identification numbers (e.g., your Social Security number, your date of birth, your child’s date of birth)
• Do use a variation of both upper and lowercase letters and numbers (e.g., k1Ufb491g)

If you suspect that someone has used or changed your password, contact us immediately at 1 800 732-8866 for individuals or at 217 785-3707 for businesses.

If you forget your username or password, you can change them by answering your shared secret question. You can set up your shared secret question and answer when you activate your account. When you use the secret question to login to your account, you will need to enter your answer exactly as it was entered when activating your account. Your answer to the secret question is space sensitive, so you can make it unique. It is important to keep this information in a secure place and not share it.