In Notice 2009-73, 2009-51 IRB, the IRS announced a two-year
pilot project allowing for paper payee statements such as IRS Form
1099s to be issued with a truncated Social Security number. The
project, which covers 2009 and 2010, is aimed at reducing potential
identity theft and is effective immediately.
Under IRS current rules, a person who is required to file an
information return to report certain payments must generally
furnish such individuals with a payee statement. These statements
generally require a nine digit taxpayer identification number,
usually a social security number.1
The Notice states that "a person's identifying number
is sensitive personal information. A risk exists that this
information could be misappropriated from a payee statement and
misused in various ways, such as to facilitate identity theft. In
an effort to minimize this risk, this notice creates a pilot
program allowing truncation of individual identifying numbers on
certain paper payee
