We receive lots of IRS notices for clients. In yesterday’s mail, we received two CP14 notices. These state that a taxpayer filed a return with a balance due. Many times this is an issue of the return being processed before the payment; sometimes, of course, the taxpayer truly owes the tax.
In this case, there’s a deeper issue. Both notices were dated December 13, 2021 with payments due on January 3, 2022—more than a month ago. This is clearly an IRS issue (not a Post Office issue, as we received two such notices sent from two different IRS Service Centers). There was no insert giving the taxpayer more time to pay. It appears the IRS again has a backlog of notices to be mailed, and is sending out notices late.
One of the two taxpayers received a CP503 notice in January (noting the balance due, but with no explanation of the amount); for the other taxpayer, this is the first communication from the IRS that has been received. The taxpayer who received the CP503 notice has paid his tax (and the account has a $0 balance), but assume for the moment you received such a notice. Wouldn’t you call the IRS up and ask them did you get my payment?
The IRS sending notices late will only add to the phone volume, making it even harder to reach the IRS for callers who truly have issues. I’m not sure why these notices were sent seven weeks after the date on the notices, but this is just adding to a miserable Tax Season.
Tags: 2022.Tax.Season