Bamaman
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Let's face it. Good help is awfully hard to find in this job market. The IRS is probably worse off than private industry in their job hires.
Thanks all. We get IP PINs and are required to file paper returns. The IRS letter didn’t explicitly say not to include correspondence. Would it be OK to include a cover letter and a copy of my certified mail receipt? Anything else I should/shouldn’t do when I mail them my return?
Let's face it. Good help is awfully hard to find in this job market. The IRS is probably worse off than private industry in their job hires.
I've been using TurboTax for years. After reading this thread, any chance of me going back to paper filing is nil.
Got a letter from the IRS saying I hadn't filed my 2020 return. According to the letter, I have a credit for a tax payment. The tax was paid by a check I enclosed in the same envelope as the return! They've asked me to file again. Anybody else experience anything like this or have any advice?
Call them! Talk with an agent who can give you the answer. You can leave a call back number if agents are backed up with calls. The system will tell you how long it will take for a return call.Thanks all. We get IP PINs and are required to file paper returns. The IRS letter didn’t explicitly say not to include correspondence. Would it be OK to include a cover letter and a copy of my certified mail receipt? Anything else I should/shouldn’t do when I mail them my return?
So, any penalty or issue (other than the trouble to send the return a second time)? I still do paper returns and typically plan to owe a small amount which I always pay by check with the return. I haven't had any lost return letters yet but expect the IRS is not running like a finely tuned machine of late.
I prepare four other returns besides our own. They are mailed in a very timely fashion. One month ago, one person received a letter from IRS that they do not have his 2020 return, however, they had cashed his payment check. Had to send them a duplicate return. Today, another person received the same letter, and they had also cashed her payment check. I have to get another duplicate return sent in tomorrow. These are fairly basic returns. This has never happened before until these 2020 returns. Apparently, the IRS has become a train wreck this past year!
Apparently, the IRS has become a train wreck this past year!
The Internal Revenue Service announced this week that the 2022 tax season filing start date—when you file your 2021 tax return—is Monday, January 24. Meanwhile, millions of people are still waiting for their 2020 tax year tax refunds. And the taxpayer advocate is warning of refund delays this tax season.
“I am deeply concerned about the upcoming filing season. Paper is the IRS’ Kryptonite, and the agency is still buried in it,” said Collins. How bad was it last year? Taxpayers faced long processing and refund delays, difficulty reaching the IRS by phone, correspondence that went unprocessed for many months, collection notices issued while taxpayer correspondence was awaiting processing, limited or no information on the Where’s My Refund? tool for delayed returns and difficulty obtaining timely assistance from the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS that Collins heads up. Last year, TAS got more than 66,000 congressional referrals, six times the pre-pandemic level of inquiries.
Millions of e-filed returns were held up as the IRS issued math error notices because of discrepancies related to 2020 tax year stimulus payments. The most common error (11 million returns) was around Recovery Rebate Credit claims by taxpayers who didn’t get stimulus payments. The mismatch triggers a math error notice; a taxpayer’s response go into the paper pile; and any refund is further delayed. Paper returns were taking up to eight months to process, and there were cases where amended returns took more than a year to process.
Went to my local IRS office. Security guard inside. Sign on door 'Do not knock' and 'by appointment only' and some 800 numbers to call. No paper tax forms. Just empty cubbies with 'out of stock' notices in *all* of them. OK, we get it, you don't want paper forms. Luckily I found a 1040 directions and a 1040 forms packet at my local library. Yay, library! Still have to find 2 more paper forms. Supposedly you can call an 800 number and get forms mailed to you, free, I would hope.
....snip We paper filed as our 2019 return was e-filed by our accountant and hacked enroute to the IRS. Refund was taken by the hackers as well as the first stimulus payment. Long hours on the phone and my congressman's office helping finally resulted in the money being returned in February of 2021. So in our situation e-filing resulted in being hacked, and paper filing is taking forever.
My takeaway is simply not to overpay for the tax year, thus triggering payment of a refund. Usually, I send a small check along with our paper return. But, our 2020 tax year strategy changed towards the end of the year based on my DH's extended consulting contract, and it was better for us to itemize rather than to take the standard deduction. My new rule: never overpay; always owe.
Meanwhile, in an Ibond thread, some people plan on overpaying estimated payments by $5k, so they can get an extra $5k of paper Ibonds as part of their tax refund.
https://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/i-bond-rate-11-2021-a-111509-14.html
E.g., see post #269
Yes, so not only are these taxpayers counting on the IRS to refund their overpaid tax liabilities timely and efficiently, they are also taking on the responsibility for keeping up with paper bonds. Nope for me.
...the IRS announced it was suspending the mailing of certain automated notices because of a backlog in processing returns...
Many taxpayers have been receiving what’s called a “CP80 Notice.” Taxpayers who had already filed a return are told to send a newly signed copy to the address listed in the notice.
Perhaps finally the IRS realized the absurdity of the request for more paperwork.
“In many situations, the tax return may be part of our current paper tax inventory and simply hasn’t been processed,” the agency statement said. “Stopping these letters — which could have otherwise been sent to thousands of taxpayers — will help avoid confusion.”...