WISP requirements for tax preparers in West Virginia
If your firm prepares tax returns or handles customer financial information in West Virginia, the written plan itself is federal. 16 CFR 314.3(a) requires a comprehensive information security program written in one or more readily accessible parts, and it has no small-firm exemption. West Virginia does not issue its own WISP. What West Virginia adds is a breach-notification layer that decides who you have to tell, and how fast, if customer information gets out.
Key facts
- The WISP itself is required of West Virginia firms at any size: 16 CFR 314.3(a) has no consumer-count exemption.
- Under 5,000 consumers, 16 CFR 314.6 does lift four duties, including the written incident response plan at 314.4(h). It does not lift the plan.
- Resident notice without unreasonable delay after discovery or notification, subject to law-enforcement, civil-investigation, homeland-security, national-security, and scope/restoration delays; owner/licensee notice by data maintainers as soon as practicable; consumer-reporting-agency notice without unreasonable delay for more than 1,000 persons.
Key takeaways
- The reviewed West Virginia notice statute does not verify a separate routine Attorney General filing threshold, but the West Virginia Attorney General contact page lists DataBreachNotice@wvago.gov for notices of breach of security of computerized personal information requested to be provided to the state pursuant to W. Va. Code § 46A-2A-102.
- The WISP should preserve evidence, remediation steps, and annual review records.
Do West Virginia tax preparers need a WISP?
Yes, if they are covered by the FTC Safeguards Rule or IRS tax-data security expectations, they should maintain a written plan. West Virginia state breach-notice duties make incident planning especially important.
The WISP should start with federal obligations because the Safeguards Rule supplies the security-program structure.
West Virginia requires notice to nationwide consumer reporting agencies without unreasonable delay when an entity must notify more than 1,000 persons; the Attorney General's contact page provides a dedicated email address for breach notices requested to be provided to the state.
What is specific to West Virginia?
Resident notice without unreasonable delay after discovery or notification, subject to law-enforcement, civil-investigation, homeland-security, national-security, and scope/restoration delays; owner/licensee notice by data maintainers as soon as practicable; consumer-reporting-agency notice without unreasonable delay for more than 1,000 persons. The plan should identify who evaluates state notice, who contacts counsel, and where the decision record is kept.
West Virginia's trigger depends on access plus acquisition and an identity-theft or fraud risk, so the record needs more than a breach date. A Policywright West Virginia incident file should preserve the discovery or vendor-notification date, unencrypted/unredacted status, access-and-acquisition evidence, identity-theft/fraud risk analysis, resident notice content, owner/licensee notice for maintained data, the Attorney General notice email decision, any security or law-enforcement delay, and the 1,000-person nationwide-consumer-reporting-agency threshold.
State breach-notification law does not replace the Safeguards Rule. It adds a state-specific response layer when an incident affects West Virginia residents.
West Virginia residents whose unencrypted and unredacted personal information was, or is reasonably believed to have been, accessed and acquired by an unauthorized person and whose breach caused or is reasonably believed to cause identity theft or other fraud.
The reviewed West Virginia notice statute does not verify a separate routine Attorney General filing threshold, but the West Virginia Attorney General contact page lists DataBreachNotice@wvago.gov for notices of breach of security of computerized personal information requested to be provided to the state pursuant to W. Va. Code § 46A-2A-102.
What should the WISP say?
It should describe real safeguards, assign responsibility, map vendors and systems, and include an incident-response path that reaches state-law review quickly.
For a small firm, the strongest plan is plain and evidence-backed: MFA records, backup tests, access reviews, training, vendor lists, and remediation dates.
The plan should never promise a control that is not actually in place.
| Topic | West Virginia planning note | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Federal WISP | Use 16 CFR Part 314 as the program backbone | WISP and annual review |
| IRS tax data | Account for taxpayer records, PTIN practice, portals, and e-file workflows | System inventory and access list |
| Breach notice | Resident notice without unreasonable delay after discovery or notification, subject to law-enforcement, civil-investigation, homeland-security, national-security, and scope/restoration delays; owner/licensee notice by data maintainers as soon as practicable; consumer-reporting-agency notice without unreasonable delay for more than 1,000 persons. | Incident clock and counsel review record |
| Regulator path | The reviewed West Virginia notice statute does not verify a separate routine Attorney General filing threshold, but the West Virginia Attorney General contact page lists DataBreachNotice@wvago.gov for notices of breach of security of computerized personal information requested to be provided to the state pursuant to W. Va. Code § 46A-2A-102. | Notification decision log |
| State statute | W. Va. Code §§ 46A-2A-101 through 46A-2A-105 | Source URL retained in page sources |
FAQ
Is this legal advice?
No. Policywright is a documentation product, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. A qualified lawyer should review state-law reliance or breach-notification decisions.
Does a small firm still need a written plan?
Yes. The Safeguards Rule requires a written information security program for covered financial institutions, and IRS guidance tells paid tax preparers to maintain a written data security plan.
What if a control is not in place yet?
A serious WISP should not pretend. It should identify the gap, assign an owner, set a target date, and preserve a dated remediation record.
Does West Virginia have its own WISP law?
This page does not claim a standalone West Virginia WISP statute for every firm. It explains how federal WISP duties should be paired with West Virginia breach-notification planning.
Who reviews West Virginia breach notice?
The incident plan should route state-law decisions through qualified counsel and preserve any West Virginia Attorney General regulator-notice analysis.
Sources
- FTC Safeguards Rule, 16 CFR Part 314 (eCFR)
- FTC, Safeguards Rule: What Your Business Needs to Know
- FTC, Safeguards Rule notification requirement now in effect (16 CFR 314.4(j), eff. May 13, 2024)
- IRS Publication 5708, Creating a Written Information Security Plan
- IRS Publication 4557, Safeguarding Taxpayer Data
- IRS Form W-12, PTIN Application and Renewal
- IRS Publication 1345, Handbook for Authorized IRS e-file Providers
- West Virginia Code § 46A-2A-102
- West Virginia Code § 46A-2A-101
- West Virginia Code § 46A-2A-104
- West Virginia Attorney General contact and data breach notice email
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