Your Social Security earnings record is a year-by-year tally of wages and self-employment income tied to your number. Future retirement and disability benefits are figured from it. If someone else works under your number, their pay can land in your file. The IRS calls this employment-related identity theft.

Most people never look at the record until something goes wrong. A short check once a year is cheap. This guide covers where to look, what to compare, and who to tell if something is off.

Start with the record itself

The Social Security Administration runs an online my Social Security account at ssa.gov. As far as we know, it lets you view your earnings history by year. Confirm the current sign-in and ID-verification steps on the SSA site before you start, since they change. This article could not review SSA guidance directly, so treat the agency's own pages as the final word.

Once you are in, go year by year. Pull out old W-2s, pay stubs or 1099s if you have them. Check that each year's total looks like what you actually earned. Look for years where you had no job but income shows up. Look for totals that are far higher than yours.

One mismatch can be an honest employer error. A pattern of unfamiliar income is different. Write down the year and the amount before you do anything else.

A wooden desk by a window with paper statements, a pen and folded reading glasses in soft side light
Set your own pay records beside the earnings history and compare one year at a time.

What counts as a warning sign

The IRS keeps a page on employment-related identity theft. The excerpt we had showed only the title and navigation, so we cannot summarize what it says. Read the full page for the agency's own description of the problem.

Common sense gives you a short list of things worth a second look:

  • Income from a year you did not work.
  • Totals well above what you earned.
  • An employer you have never heard of, if your records show one.

None of these proves fraud on its own. They are reasons to dig further. A former employer may have filed under a different business name, for example. Ask before you assume the worst.

If the IRS sends a notice

Some people learn about a problem from the mail. The IRS has a page titled Understanding your CP01E notice. We could not see what the notice says or why it is sent, so we will not guess. If one arrives, open the IRS page and read the letter next to it.

Note the notice date, the tax year and any response date printed on the letter. Do not ignore it because it looks routine. Respond the way the notice tells you to, and keep a copy of whatever you send back.

An IRS notice is also a good reason to check your SSA record, if you have not already. The two files are separate, but a problem in one can point to a problem in the other.

Reporting and recovery

The Federal Trade Commission has a consumer page called What To Know About Tax Identity Theft. Our excerpt of it held no usable guidance, so read it directly. The FTC also runs IdentityTheft.gov, where people report identity theft and can get a recovery plan. Check the site for what it currently offers.

Two kinds of identity theft often get mixed up, and the difference shapes who you contact:

  • Employment identity theft: someone uses your number to get a job, and the employer reports their wages under your name.
  • Tax return identity theft: someone files a return in your name to claim a refund.

You can face both at once. If a fraudulent return is part of your situation, the IRS runs an Identity Protection PIN program that adds a layer of protection to your filings. Look at irs.gov for current eligibility and enrollment rules.

For the earnings record, the SSA is the agency that can correct it. The SSA's Office of Inspector General handles fraud reports, and your local SSA office can explain how to dispute wages that are not yours. Get current contact details and required paperwork from ssa.gov. Phone numbers and forms change, and we would rather send you to the source than print a stale number.

Keep a paper trail

Keep it plain. Save screenshots or printouts of your earnings history, dated. Keep every notice you receive, with envelopes if you can. When you call an agency, write down the date, the name of the person and what they told you. This is common practice rather than an agency requirement, but it makes a long fix easier to follow.

If the numbers still do not add up after you have checked them, a tax professional or an attorney can look at your specific facts. Bring the printouts. They will ask for them.