How to Verify Your IRS Certified Acceptance Agent: A 3-Minute Check Before You Pay Anyone

The ITIN service market has a higher concentration of look-alike websites, recycled brand names, and outright scams than almost any other tax service category. Three of the most common patterns we see:

1. A site uses the term "IRS-approved" without specifying the legal entity that holds the authorisation.
2. Pricing is set exactly $10 above or below an obvious market leader to capture confused traffic from comparison searches.
3. The site shows IRS-branded imagery (eagles, seals, official-looking blue) that creates the impression of being part of the agency rather than a private service provider.

The good news: the IRS publishes the complete list of Certified Acceptance Agents on IRS.gov. The check takes about three minutes and removes most of the ambiguity.

This guide walks through what to look for, where to find the list, and exactly where to find our own entry.

What a CAA is and isn't

A Certified Acceptance Agent (CAA) is an individual or entity authorised by the IRS to verify the identity documents of ITIN applicants on the IRS's behalf. The authorisation is issued under the IRS Acceptance Agent Program after a multi-step application process: fingerprinting, IRS forensic-document training, agreement signing, and IRS background review.

A CAA can do three things a regular tax preparer cannot:

• Verify identity documents in person or by approved remote video procedure, eliminating the need to mail original passports to the IRS.
• Issue a Certificate of Accuracy (Form W-7 COA) that travels with the W-7 package and tells the IRS the identity verification step is complete.
• Submit the W-7 package directly through the IRS Acceptance Agent channel, which is the path used inside the ITIN Operation in Austin, Texas.

A CAA is not a US government agency. A CAA is not "approved by" or "endorsed by" the IRS in the sense of having IRS staff stand behind the company. A CAA is a private business holding an IRS authorisation to perform a specific procedural function. That distinction matters when you read a competitor's marketing copy.

The official IRS CAA directory

The IRS publishes the Acceptance Agent directory at:

irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/acceptance-agent-program

From that page the IRS organises authorised agents by country of the agent's office location — so there is a separate page for agents in the United States, China, India, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and other countries with sizeable CAA populations. The country listing is the authoritative public source for verification.

The country list is the relevant lookup because:

• A CAA's authorisation extends globally; the country reflects only where the firm operates from, not where it can serve clients.
• Agencies and individuals with US offices appear on the US list; entities with offices in other jurisdictions appear on the matching country list.
• For each entity, the IRS publishes the entity name, address, phone number, and (for some) email contact.

The directory is a static published document. The IRS refreshes it on a periodic cadence — typically monthly to quarterly. There can be a brief gap between authorisation issuance and listing appearance, and similarly between revocation and removal. For a firm that has held authorisation for any length of time, the listing should be there.

The 4 facts to verify on the list

When you find an entry, four facts should match what the firm tells you on its website:

1. Entity name. This is the legal entity that holds the CAA authorisation. It may differ from the consumer brand on the firm's website — most professional services brands operate that way — but the firm should be able to disclose both names without hesitation.
2. Address. The street address listed on IRS.gov should be the real office of the firm. If a firm claims to be headquartered in one city but is listed at an address in a completely different country with no explanation, ask.
3. Phone number. The phone number on the IRS listing should ring through to the firm's actual operations. Call it — a firm with a live receptionist or a normal IVR routing is real; a number that goes nowhere or is disconnected is not.
4. Authorisation status. If the entity is on the current published list, the authorisation was active as of the most recent IRS refresh. Combined with the firm being responsive on the listed phone number, that's a strong real-time signal.

The AAN (Acceptance Agent Number) itself is not published on the public country directory — it is the firm's internal IRS identifier, used on Form W-7 packages and known to the firm. A legitimate CAA can produce its AAN on request; if a firm cannot, that's a flag.

How to verify GlobalTaxID specifically

GlobalTaxID is the consumer-facing brand. Our IRS Certified Acceptance Agent authorisation is held under the legal entity Helpayments LLC, which is the name that appears on the IRS.gov CAA directory. This is standard practice for professional services brands, and we disclose both names openly so the verification step is straightforward.

Our entry appears on the IRS China CAA list. The direct link to our entry, with the IRS.gov "scroll to text fragment" anchor that highlights our row in the page, is:

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/acceptance-agents-china

Search the page for Helpayments LLC (or follow the anchor link above which scrolls the page to our row automatically in Chrome and Safari). The entry shows our entity name, our office address, and our phone number. Cross-check those facts against this site's contact page and you have completed the verification.

Two clarifying points many first-time clients ask:

• Why are you on the China list if you serve clients globally? The IRS organises the directory by the country of the agent's office, not the country of the client. Our authorisation extends globally and we serve clients in 50+ countries. The China listing reflects our office of operation, not any limitation on who we can help.
• Why isn't "GlobalTaxID" on the list? Because GlobalTaxID is the brand, not the legal entity. The legal entity that holds the CAA authorisation is Helpayments LLC. The same brand/entity split exists at most large CAA firms — what matters is that the entity on the IRS directory is the one that performs the verification work for you.

Red flags on CAA service websites

The verification check above catches most legitimate questions. The patterns below are the ones that have come up most often in cases we have inherited from other providers:

• No legal entity named. A site that uses "IRS-approved" or "IRS-Authorised CAA" but never names the entity that holds the authorisation cannot be verified. Walk away.
• Pricing pegged to a competitor by $10. This is a known affiliate-marketing tactic; the site exists to capture comparison traffic, not to deliver service. Real CAAs price their service against their own cost structure, not against a specific competitor.
• Stock photos labelled as the office or team. Reverse-image-search the photos. If they appear on five other unrelated sites, the firm is not who they claim to be.
• "Submit your passport for verification" mailing instructions. A CAA does not need your original passport. If the firm asks you to mail it, they are either an Acceptance Agent (AA) rather than a CAA — which is a different and slower service — or they are not authorised at all.
• No physical address. Every CAA has a real office address that appears on the IRS list. A PO box with no street address suggests something to investigate.
• Pressure to pay before the eligibility review. Legitimate firms run an eligibility check before taking payment, because some clients will be ineligible and the firm does not want to refund. Pressure to pay immediately is a sales tactic, not a service quality signal.
• Reviews that all post within a single week. Search for the firm's reviews on independent platforms and check the dates. A cluster of glowing reviews in the same 7-day window is artificial.
• Refusal to disclose the AAN. Every CAA has an AAN. A firm that cannot produce it on request is not a CAA in any meaningful sense.

What to do if your current provider isn't on the list

If you are mid-engagement with a provider you cannot find on the IRS directory, here is the order of action:

1. Ask for the AAN and the dated IRS authorisation letter. A legitimate firm can produce both within a business day.
2. Compare the entity name they give you against the IRS country lists. Use the search function on IRS.gov to scan all country pages.
3. Pause any pending document handover — especially any request to mail your original passport — until step 1 and 2 resolve.
4. If the firm cannot satisfy step 1, request a refund of any paid fees and re-engage with a verified provider. If no documents have been submitted yet, switching is straightforward; the W-7 you have drafted is usable.
5. If documents have already been mailed by an unauthorised "agent", contact the IRS Acceptance Agent Program by phone (267-941-1000 from outside the US) and ask for guidance on how to track or recall the application.

Verifying us in one click

To summarise — to verify GlobalTaxID before you engage:

1. Open the IRS China CAA list on irs.gov.
2. Use your browser's find function (Cmd-F or Ctrl-F) and search for Helpayments LLC.
3. You will see our entity name, address, and phone number. Cross-check the phone number against this site's contact details.
4. Optionally, call the phone number. We pick up during business hours.

If anything on the IRS page does not match what we tell you, stop and ask. We would rather you verify and then engage than engage without verifying.

Frequently asked questions

The FAQ block above covers the most common questions. If you have a verification question we haven't addressed, send it through the contact form and we will respond with the underlying facts.