If you run your business as a sole proprietor, an LLC taxed as a disregarded entity, or really anything where the business’s taxes and your personal 1040 are the same filing, the IRS just changed the app on your phone. On September 25, 2026, the agency retired IRS2Go and replaced it with a new app that it’s billing as the start of a “digital-first” push to modernize how taxpayers interact with the IRS, according to the IRS newsroom announcement. IRS Chief Executive Officer Frank Bisignano framed it as putting “more services at taxpayers’ fingertips” and meeting people “how and where they choose to interact with the IRS.”
That’s a reasonable pitch, and the app is genuinely more capable than its predecessor. But if you were hoping this finally lets you handle your business’s payroll deposits or quarterly estimated payments from your phone the same way you check a bank balance, there’s a catch worth knowing before you plan around it.
What the new app actually does
The app — available free on the Apple App Store and Google Play, with automatic updates rolling it out to existing IRS2Go users — lets you do several things that used to require logging into the full IRS.gov site on a browser:
- Check the status of a refund or an amended return
- View your current account balance with the IRS
- Make a payment and review your payment history
- View select notices and letters the IRS has sent you
- Pull tax records and transcripts
- Manage profile and communication preferences
- Access your Identity Protection PIN (IP PIN)
For a sole proprietor or single-member LLC owner who files business income on Schedule C of a personal return, several of these matter directly. Checking your balance before you make a quarterly estimated payment, pulling a transcript when a lender asks for proof of income, or grabbing your IP PIN before filing season all used to mean sitting down at a laptop. Now they fit into five minutes between customers.
The part that doesn’t travel to your phone yet
Here’s the limitation that matters most if you’ve grown past a one-person operation: the new app covers the Individual Online Account, not the Business Tax Account. If you have an EIN and use it to manage payroll tax deposits, view a business entity transcript, or approve a lender’s request to verify your business’s tax transcripts, you still need to log into IRS.gov on a browser — the mobile app doesn’t reach those tools yet, as both the IRS announcement and Journal of Accountancy’s coverage note explicitly.
That’s a real gap, because the Business Tax Account itself has gotten genuinely useful over the past couple of years. Any sole proprietor with an EIN can activate one, and from it you can make electronic payments, schedule or cancel a future payment, download a business entity transcript, view select notices tied to the EIN, and respond to income-verification requests from lenders — all documented on the IRS’s own Business Tax Account page. None of that is in the app. If your business runs payroll or you’ve been asked for a transcript by a bank or landlord, you’re still opening a browser for that specific task, even after downloading the new app for everything else.
The IRS has said it plans to keep adding capability to the app over time, but gave no date for when Business Tax Account functionality might show up there. Plan your workflow around what exists today, not what’s promised.
Why the IP PIN feature is worth setting up this week, specifically
Of everything in the new app, the Identity Protection PIN access deserves more than a passing mention. An IP PIN is a six-digit code the IRS issues that’s required before any tax return can be filed under your Social Security number — it stops a thief who has your name and SSN (both easy to find for a business owner whose name is on a storefront lease, a liquor license, or a county business filing) from filing a fraudulent return and claiming your refund before you do.
Business owners are a disproportionately attractive target for this kind of fraud precisely because so much of their identifying information is already public record. Enrolling now, before filing season opens in January, means the PIN is active and in your app well before you need it — not something you’re scrambling to set up during the first week of tax season when confirmation delays are longer.
Using the app without getting phished because of it
A new official app is also a new costume for scammers to wear. The IRS has been explicit that it never initiates contact by text message or unsolicited email demanding payment or personal information, and the agency is warning people specifically to download only from the official Apple App Store or Google Play listings rather than clicking a link in a text or email claiming to be the new app. That guidance is worth repeating to any employee who handles your books or your business’s mail, not just to yourself — a convincing lookalike app or a “your refund is ready, verify your identity” text aimed at a bookkeeper is exactly the kind of social-engineering angle fraud rings have leaned into as official government tools go mobile.
What to do this week
Download the app directly from your phone’s app store, not from a link in an email or text. If you file business income on your personal return, set up your IP PIN now while you have a quiet moment, rather than during the January rush. And if your business has an EIN and runs payroll, don’t let the new app lull you into thinking your Business Tax Account tasks have moved to your pocket — they haven’t yet, so keep that bookmark for IRS.gov handy for now.
