This morning, our IRS Stakeholder Liaison held a conference call on the current IRS situation. One unfortunate piece of information that was noted is that not only does the IRS have a backlog of incoming mail (estimated at well over 10 million pieces), there is a very large backlog of outgoing mail. As of early this week, the IRS has a backlog of 23.5 million notices.
With the IRS gradually reopening, this is a backlog that’s going to take months to resolve. The IRS has the capability of mailing 1.5 million notices per week. That means there’s nearly a four month backlog. This week, I received an IRS notice for a client for the first time in months, so the IRS is starting on this. Per today’s call, the IRS is concentrating on notices that are time sensitive (such as Notices of Deficiency).
There are also going to be issues with the notices. These notices are computer generated, so the deadlines in the notices will be wrong. The IRS is including a flyer explaining this along with the new deadlines, but how many taxpayers actually read an insert?
The 23.5 million notices does not include notices that will be generated based on returns as they are processed, and the backlog of correspondence that must be processed. I’m telling clients that have responded to IRS notices to think that it will likely be several months before they hear anything.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing the IRS can do at this point but to start on the process and let practitioners know of the issues. This is a year to be patient with the IRS.
Tags: 2020.Tax.Season