If you have never filed a federal tax return before, the tax year the IRS wants to verify against doesn’t exist yet, and the figure you enter for prior-year AGI is $0. That is the answer to what tax year to use for verification as a first-time filer: there is no prior year on record, so the IRS instructs first-time filers over the age of 16 to enter zero as their prior-year Adjusted Gross Income when they e-file.1Internal Revenue Service. Validating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return
Why Zero Is the Right Entry
When you e-file, the IRS asks for your prior-year AGI as an electronic signature. The system compares what you type against what it has stored from your last accepted return. For someone filing for the first time, the database has nothing to compare against, so the expected value is $0. Entering the income figure from the return you are currently filing will not work; the system isn’t looking at this year’s numbers, it’s looking for last year’s, and last year’s is empty.
This is the specific piece that trips up young adults filing after a first summer job or first year of full-time work. They search for a prior-year AGI, can’t find one because they never filed, and stall. Zero is what the IRS expects.1Internal Revenue Service. Validating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return
If You Filed in an Earlier Year but Not Last Year
The same rule applies to anyone who simply didn’t file in the immediately prior tax year, even if they filed in earlier years. The IRS matches against the most recent prior-year return. If nothing was filed for that specific year, zero is the entry the system expects.
Where the Entry Goes When You E-File
Tax software will prompt you for the prior-year AGI as part of the signature step near the end of the filing process. The IRS also accepts a prior-year Self-Select PIN as an alternative signature method, but a first-time filer won’t have one of those either, so AGI is the field to focus on, and $0 is the value.1Internal Revenue Service. Validating Your Electronically Filed Tax Return
If the Return Still Gets Rejected
A rejection after entering $0 usually means one of two things. Either the IRS actually does have a return on file that you or someone else submitted in your name, or your software is defaulting to a different value. Recheck the field, resubmit, and if the rejection continues you can print and mail a paper return. Paper returns don’t use AGI validation at all, so if the electronic signature step is the only obstacle, mailing is a working fallback.
If You Have an Identity Protection PIN
An Identity Protection PIN is a six-digit number that keeps anyone else from filing a return under your Social Security number. If you have one, you must include it on every federal return you file.2Internal Revenue Service. Get an Identity Protection PIN The IP PIN is separate from the prior-year AGI signature. You need both fields correct: $0 in the AGI field, and your IP PIN in the IP PIN field. Missing or wrong on either one will cause the return to bounce.
Most first-time filers do not have an IP PIN unless they’ve been confirmed as a victim of tax-related identity theft, in which case the IRS enrolls them automatically and mails a new PIN each year via a CP01A Notice.2Internal Revenue Service. Get an Identity Protection PIN Anyone can also opt in through their IRS online account. If you can’t verify your identity online, Form 15227 lets you request an IP PIN by phone verification, provided your AGI is below $84,000 as an individual or $168,000 for married filing jointly.3Internal Revenue Service. FAQs About the Identity Protection Personal Identification Number (IP PIN)
If the IRS Sends You a Verification Letter
Sometimes the IRS’s fraud filters flag a return and send out a letter, commonly a 5071C or 5747C, asking you to verify your identity before the return is processed. This is a different process from the e-file signature and is not solved by entering $0 anywhere. These letters point you to the Identity and Tax Return Verification Service online, or to the Taxpayer Protection Program line at 800-830-5084.4Taxpayer Advocate Service. Identity Verification and Your Tax Return In limited cases the letter directs you to a Taxpayer Assistance Center in person, by appointment only, scheduled through 844-545-5640. Bring a government-issued photo ID and a second piece of identification, which can be a mortgage statement, lease, utility bill matching your address, car title, voter registration card, Social Security card, or birth certificate.5Internal Revenue Service. Understanding Your Letter 5747C
If you didn’t get one of these letters, this section doesn’t apply to you. The e-file signature and the letter-driven identity verification are two separate systems, and first-time filers most often meet only the first one.
What About IRS Online Accounts and FAFSA
Two related situations don’t work the way the e-file signature does, and it’s worth being clear on the distinction so you don’t hunt for a prior year that doesn’t matter.
Setting up an IRS online account for the first time doesn’t require a prior-year AGI. The IRS now uses ID.me for identity verification, which asks for a photo of a government-issued ID and a selfie, not tax history.6Internal Revenue Service. New Identity Verification Process to Access Certain IRS Online Tools and Services A first-time filer with no return on file can still create the account.
The FAFSA is also different. The old IRS Data Retrieval Tool was retired after the 2023-24 cycle and replaced by the FUTURE Act Direct Data Exchange, which transfers tax information from the IRS to the Department of Education automatically once you consent.7Internal Revenue Service. Tax Information for Federal Student Aid Applications The FAFSA uses the “prior-prior year,” so the 2026-2027 application pulls 2024 tax data.8Federal Student Aid. Application and Verification Guide – 2025-2026 Federal Student Aid Handbook If you’ve never filed, there’s no data to pull, and the application handles that through its own dependency and non-filer questions rather than through a prior-year AGI entry.
The Short Version
For a first-time filer signing an e-filed federal return, the tax year the IRS wants to verify is the one immediately before the year you’re filing for, and the AGI it expects to see for that year is $0. Enter zero, add an IP PIN in the separate IP PIN field if you have one, and submit. If a specific IRS letter arrives asking for identity verification, follow the instructions on that letter; it’s a different process with its own portal, phone line, and, in some cases, in-person appointment.