Glad to see this ending well.
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. "
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...
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...
This is the sort of thing that turns people into libertarians/tea party/ffar right gubmint haters.
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?
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 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?
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.
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)
But I am not forced to do business with Anthem and if I find their service appallingly incompetent I am free to go elsewhere.