IRS letter says they do not have my 2014 return, ACA subsidies threatened

[MichaelB]

Glad to see this ending well.

 

[brewer12345]

So I got one of these insane letters today. I filed electronically and the filing did include form 8962. I tried calling the 800 number and after wading through a phone tree I got hung up on. Guess I will have to try again later.


This is the sort of thing that turns people into libertarians/tea party/ffar right gubmint haters.

 

[meierlde]

I actually had a problem with the IRS concerning the date a return was mailed... they said it was mailed late... I pointed out that I mailed 4 different returns for the companies at the same time and the other 3 were not mailed late... it took me almost a year to get a penalty waived because someone 7 years earlier had mailed a return late and they waived that one.... seems you only get one waiver..... but they finally agreed since they did not keep the envelope as proof that it was mailed late and not just delivered late....

The advantage of mailing certified mail. The reciept proves the date of mailing according to the law. The return reciept then proves the IRS got the return.
Internal Revenue Bulletin 2004-43 "These proposed regulations amend §301.7502-1(e)(1) to clarify that, other than direct proof of actual delivery, the exclusive means to establish prima facie evidence of delivery of Federal tax documents to the IRS and the United States Tax Court is to prove the use of registered or certified mail. The IRS currently accepts only a registered or certified mail receipt to establish a presumption of delivery if the IRS has no record of ever having received the document in question. This policy not only is consistent with section 7502(c) but also provides taxpayers with certainty that, under the Code, a certified or registered mail receipt will establish prima facie evidence of delivery. Accordingly, the proposed regulations merely clarify and confirm current IRS practice under the existing regulations. These proposed regulations provide that the final regulations, to which these proposed regulations relate, will be effective for all documents mailed after the publication date of these proposed regulations. "

 

[Helios]

The old school method is to go to one of the irs offices. I have found this about as effective as other correspondence schemes.

 

[Texas Proud]

The advantage of mailing certified mail. The reciept proves the date of mailing according to the law. The return reciept then proves the IRS got the return.
Internal Revenue Bulletin 2004-43 "These proposed regulations amend §301.7502-1(e)(1) to clarify that, other than direct proof of actual delivery, the exclusive means to establish prima facie evidence of delivery of Federal tax documents to the IRS and the United States Tax Court is to prove the use of registered or certified mail. The IRS currently accepts only a registered or certified mail receipt to establish a presumption of delivery if the IRS has no record of ever having received the document in question. This policy not only is consistent with section 7502(c) but also provides taxpayers with certainty that, under the Code, a certified or registered mail receipt will establish prima facie evidence of delivery. Accordingly, the proposed regulations merely clarify and confirm current IRS practice under the existing regulations. These proposed regulations provide that the final regulations, to which these proposed regulations relate, will be effective for all documents mailed after the publication date of these proposed regulations. "

Yep..... I know... I was being cheap with the companies money... had something like 11 returns to file... and never had problems before...

But, I do wonder what date would have been used... the company had their own stamp machine and we did all registrations in house... then took them to the post office and just dropped them off... so if the post office screwed up and delayed it a day.... still in the same situation...

I was able to show that we did purchase all postage on the same day... which is why I think they finally let it go...

 

[meierlde]

Yep..... I know... I was being cheap with the companies money... had something like 11 returns to file... and never had problems before...

But, I do wonder what date would have been used... the company had their own stamp machine and we did all registrations in house... then took them to the post office and just dropped them off... so if the post office screwed up and delayed it a day.... still in the same situation...

I was able to show that we did purchase all postage on the same day... which is why I think they finally let it go...

The certified mail reciept has a date stamped on it when the postage is calculated. That is the date used if mailed at the post office. Does your stamp machine do certified mail?

 

[MRG]

Yep..... I know... I was being cheap with the companies money... had something like 11 returns to file... and never had problems before...

But, I do wonder what date would have been used... the company had their own stamp machine and we did all registrations in house... then took them to the post office and just dropped them off... so if the post office screwed up and delayed it a day.... still in the same situation...

I was able to show that we did purchase all postage on the same day... which is why I think they finally let it go...

That assumes the entire issue was not one of computer defects. I got an inside peak of how messed up the IRS's technology was around 2004. I have no confidence they can add 2+2 together and consistently come up with a correct answer. Maybe the mass mailing was at least partially incorrect.

 

[gauss]

This is the sort of thing that turns people into libertarians/tea party/ffar right gubmint haters.

It is easy to see your point, however the irony is that the underfunding of the IRS, often by politicos associated with these groups, has contributed directly to these customer service issues IMHO.

 

[MichaelB]

Why don't we steer away from the partisan comments, as they never end well.

 

[Texas Proud]

The certified mail reciept has a date stamped on it when the postage is calculated. That is the date used if mailed at the post office. Does your stamp machine do certified mail?

I did not do them... but from what I saw all we did was put the certified mail sticker (or whatever you want to call it) on the envelope and then have the machine print out the proper postage... since they were larger envelopes with varying weights the postage was specific to the envelope...

I did not see the meter print anything on the certified thing we attached..


BTW, I did not send them certified which is where the problem comes in.....

 

[brewer12345]

After an hour on hold I finally got an agent who confirmed everything is correctly filed. He said that essentially what happened is that the mountain of returns they get in mid April takes a while to process and the letter was generated before they got around to processing my return. Great way to showcase organizational dysfunction and bureaucratic waste, guys. The agent I dealt with could not have been more polite, though.

 

[ivinsfan]

After an hour on hold I finally got an agent who confirmed everything is correctly filed. He said that essentially what happened is that the mountain of returns they get in mid April takes a while to process and the letter was generated before they got around to processing my return. Great way to showcase organizational dysfunction and bureaucratic waste, guys. The agent I dealt with could not have been more polite, though.

This sounds exactly like the BCBS snafu we ran into last fall. Own small business with 2 couples covered. BCBS for 30 plus years just changed plans and signed to continue the auto-pay. This is in late November...get the coverage cards. Late December threatening letters, we haven't gotten your payment and your coverage may be cancelled. We call our agent and offer a paper check, she says no that will goof up the system. Get 3 more letters each more threatening then the last, before the middle of Feb,
keep calling our agent and she says don't worry you are covered....Feb 15 they take 3 months worth of payments. Third week in Feb they sent a letter that says, we are behind on processing our auto-payments and please ignore any letters saying you are behind in payments. I can't imagine the money and time that got wasted with this scenario So it seems health insurance coverage is causing lots of backlogs in the system.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I glean from this valuable and important string(thank you OP for starting this), that one way to prevent fraudsters from claiming fraudulent refunds is to file with the irs to view one's old transcripts because doing so prevents others from registering in your name. It also seems to imply that that function(registering to view) is currently unavailable. Does anyone know if this is a temporary situation or permanent as the IRS is addressing the reality that the system has inadvertently allowed fraudulent returns to be filed? My second question relates to a situation we have. Our accountant files our returns on our behalf and has done so for years. Would my signing up to view our transcripts prevent our accountant from filing our returns in the future?

 

[eytonxav]

I glean from this valuable and important string(thank you OP for starting this), that one way to prevent fraudsters from claiming fraudulent refunds is to file with the irs to view one's old transcripts because doing so prevents others from registering in your name. It also seems to imply that that function(registering to view) is currently unavailable. Does anyone know if this is a temporary situation or permanent as the IRS is addressing the reality that the system has inadvertently allowed fraudulent returns to be filed? My second question relates to a situation we have. Our accountant files our returns on our behalf and has done so for years. Would my signing up to view our transcripts prevent our accountant from filing our returns in the future?

Good questions, I too was wondering about your first question.

 

[audreyh1]

It's really annoying that the online get transcript service has become unavailable. Wonder how long this will last? At least they don't say it's permanently gone, but it would be nice to know if it's going to be down for months:
Get Transcript

I don't think someone else filing will affect your ability to see your transcript. This is totally separate from the eFiling system.

 

[audreyh1]

After an hour on hold I finally got an agent who confirmed everything is correctly filed. He said that essentially what happened is that the mountain of returns they get in mid April takes a while to process and the letter was generated before they got around to processing my return. Great way to showcase organizational dysfunction and bureaucratic waste, guys. The agent I dealt with could not have been more polite, though.

I agree with ivinsfan - you run into this issue with commercial entities too. Witness the mess at Anthem and numerous others.

What's unfortunate is that the IRS is forced to complete certain things in certain time frames (like refunds) even if they don't have the all the information needed at the time.

 

[brewer12345]

I agree with ivinsfan - you run into this issue with commercial entities too. Witness the mess at Anthem and numerous others.

What's unfortunate is that the IRS is forced to complete certain things in certain time frames (like refunds) even if they don't have the all the information needed at the time.

But I am not forced to do business with Anthem and if I find their service appallingly incompetent I am free to go elsewhere.

 

[meierlde]

It's really annoying that the online get transcript service has become unavailable. Wonder how long this will last? At least they don't say it's permanently gone, but it would be nice to know if it's going to be down for months:
Get Transcript

I don't think someone else filing will affect your ability to see your transcript. This is totally separate from the eFiling system.

Since the service was implicated in the identity theft problem in that folks used it to get the info needed to file tax returns, I suspect it will be down for at least months as the re-think the way it is done. Likely in the future you will need to provide more info to get a transcript, such as amounts from some lines on the tax form. (As a way to ensure that the right person is making the request)

 

[audreyh1]

Since the service was implicated in the identity theft problem in that folks used it to get the info needed to file tax returns, I suspect it will be down for at least months as the re-think the way it is done. Likely in the future you will need to provide more info to get a transcript, such as amounts from some lines on the tax form. (As a way to ensure that the right person is making the request)

That's what I was thinking. Their using Experian info to verify identity to get a transcript was not robust enough - although knowing details from your last tax return in addition to that info should have been.

They try to accommodate people who don't have copies for prior tax returns. This introduces opportunities for someone to access your information fraudulently, if it's too easy for anyone to discover.

Another thing - they will only mail transcripts to the last address used for the tax return. This is another check they could have used, although it would mean you have to wait for mail to access your transcript.

I may order my info by mail, assuming it will take a few months for the transcripts to be available again online.

 

[ivinsfan]

But I am not forced to do business with Anthem and if I find their service appallingly incompetent I am free to go elsewhere.

True and you don't face possible fines or even worse for not following all the arcane and confusing rules. But I believe this new national health care plan is initially causing problems for one and all..... the providers and the enforcers (IRS). Hopefully things will improve for everybody.
It sounds as if this problem and the identify theft issue are gumming up the works with the IRS...