If you're a veteran and the words "ID.me" make you tense up a little, that reaction is earned — and you don't need to go through it to open a Trump Account for your child.
You've probably already dealt with this at the VA
Since 2019, the VA has used ID.me as part of a $32 million contract to verify identity for VA.gov, the VA mobile app, and My HealtheVet. In January 2025, the VA went further: it retired the older, simpler DS Logon system entirely (removed November 18, 2025) and phased out classic My HealtheVet logins (stopped March 5, 2025), making ID.me or Login.gov the only way in. If you'd managed to avoid ID.me until now, that's no longer possible for VA services at all.
This has been a documented problem, not a rare glitch. A Business Insider investigation found more than 700 complaints filed about ID.me with the VA in just four months (October 2021 to January 2022) — veterans and caregivers locked out of disability payments and emergency assistance while stuck in what the investigation described as "inscrutable technical hoops." Reported failure points include facial recognition rejecting valid users due to aging, disability-related facial changes, weight fluctuations, or even a new haircut — with veterans sometimes needing to prove their identity all over again at the worst possible time.
Sources: Business Insider investigation, VA public records (Oct 2021–Jan 2022) · U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, "Prepare for VA's Secure Sign-In Changes"
The good news: Form 4547 doesn't require any of that
Opening a Trump Account for your child through Form 4547 is a completely separate process from your VA accounts — it's an IRS form, not a VA one. But the IRS's own online paths (trumpaccounts.gov and your IRS Online Account) use the same ID.me system. If it's given you trouble once, there's no reason to expect a better experience the second time.
You don't have to use it to file. The paper Form 4547 doesn't ask for a photo ID, a selfie, or any biometric verification anywhere on it — just your Social Security number, your address, and a handwritten signature.
One thing worth knowing, given your history with ID.me at the VA: filing on paper avoids ID.me at the filing step, but activating the account afterward — actually logging in through the Trump Accounts app or trumpaccount.com — appears to use the same ID.me-verified credentials as the online filing paths. That's a real, separate step, at a later date, and mailing the form doesn't make it go away. What it does give you: your child gets enrolled and eligible for the $1,000 now, without ID.me standing between you and applying at all. Whatever trouble you've had with ID.me before, you can deal with activation later, on your own schedule — it's not a gate you have to clear today just to get your child into the program.
Source: Instructions for Form 4547 (Rev. 12/2025), "Authorized Individual" · U.S. Treasury, "Treasury Announces the Launch of the Trump Accounts App"
What trips people up on the paper form instead: it's dense, the fields aren't clearly labeled, there's a required authorization checkbox that's easy to miss, and everything on it is signed under penalty of perjury — so a small mistake isn't a small thing. That's a different, more manageable problem than a facial recognition system rejecting you for reasons outside your control.
What we built this for
That's the actual problem form4547assistant.com solves: a plain-language walkthrough that checks your eligibility first, catches the specific spots people get wrong, and hands you a worksheet mapped line-by-line to the real form's own numbering — so filling out the actual paper form becomes mostly copy-paste. No ID.me, no biometric scan, no account required to file — enrollment now, activation on your own timeline later.
Ready to get started?
Check your eligibility and get your worksheet for $7 — no ID.me, no account, no selfie.