Unused ITINs Expired on 31 December 2025

News · ITIN Took effect 31 December 2025 Written up by SV Associates on 2 September 2026

ITINs are not permanent. One that has gone unused for three consecutive tax years expires — and a large group of them expired at the end of 2025.

Who is affected

If your ITIN was not included on a US federal tax return for any of tax years 2022, 2023 or 2024, it expired on 31 December 2025.

The test is use, not age. An ITIN issued fifteen years ago and used on a return last year is perfectly valid. One issued three years ago and never used since is not. People consistently get this the wrong way round and assume the older number is the problem.

What happens if you file with an expired ITIN

The return will be accepted — this is the part that misleads people. It is processed, but as though the identifying number were missing. In practice that means:

• any refund is held rather than paid;

• credits and exemptions that depend on the number can be disallowed;

• you receive IRS correspondence about it, months later, and the clock restarts once you respond.

Nothing tells you at the point of filing that anything is wrong. You discover it when the refund does not arrive.

How renewal works

Renewal uses the same Form W-7 as an original application, and the same identity documentation rules apply — which means the same requirement to produce an original passport or an authority-certified copy, and the same reason not to post your passport to the United States.

As a Certifying Acceptance Agent we verify your passport here in Ahmedabad and certify it to the IRS, so renewal does not mean parting with your passport any more than an original application does. The mechanics are covered in our ITIN guide.

One piece of timing advice: renew outside the January–April filing peak if you possibly can. The same application takes materially longer when submitted alongside everyone else's, and an ITIN renewal in progress does not stop a filing deadline arriving.