February 11th at 12PM CST – Register Now!

The IRS relies on accurate legal names and taxpayer identification numbers (TINs on information returns to match income, deductions, and withholding to individual and business tax returns. When name and TIN combinations do not match IRS records, that data cannot be reliably matched, contributing to underreporting, enforcement activity, and the nation’s tax gap.

For filers, incorrect tax identity data has real consequences: backup withholding obligations, B-Notices, manual reconciliation between withholding deposits and filed forms, and penalties under IRC Sections 6721 and 6722. These issues are rarely isolated to a single form or filing season and often spill into state reporting and audit exposure.

In this session, Wendy Walker, VP of Regulatory Affairs at Sovos, breaks down why tax identity management is not just a filing requirement, but an ongoing operational discipline that must be embedded into core business processes long before year-end reporting begins.

Key Learnings:

• How the IRS uses legal name and TIN data to match information returns to tax returns, and why mismatches directly trigger backup withholding, enforcement activity, and penalties

• What filers are legally required to collect and maintain under IRC Sections 6109, 6721, and 6722, and how proper documentation supports penalty abatement and reasonable cause relief

• Why incorrect TINs create significant operational burden, including backup withholding calculations, deposits, manual reconciliation, and downstream penalty exposure when amounts do not tie

• Why IRS Name and TIN Matching is a critical but limited control, and which payments and payees cannot be validated through IRS systems

• What effective tax identity management looks like in practice, and how leading financial services organizations embed these processes into onboarding, account maintenance, and year-round reporting workflows

• Live Q&A with practical implementation considerations

Wendy Walker is the VP of Regulatory Affairs at Sovos for the RegTech business. Leveraging over 15 years of industry experience leading tax operations and compliance teams in financial services organizations, she now plays a pivotal role in driving Sovos’ regulatory and policy strategy throughout the IRS and state tax agencies. Wendy proactively develops and advocates Sovos’s related positions and influences emerging strategic issues in tax legislation and regulation which impact Sovos and its’ clients. Wendy is the Chair of the Information Reporting Subgroup for the Internal Revenue Service Advisory Council (IRSAC) and is also an active member of the Council for Electronic Revenue Communication Advancement (CERCA) and the National Association of Computerized Tax Processors (NACTP). In these roles, Wendy advocates for improvements in tax policy and administration with members of the IRS and state tax authorities.