Two more examples came in yesterday’s mail regarding the IRS’s troubles with correspondence. First, clients received an Automated Underreporting Unit (AUR) notice in late December (2020) regarding income allegedly not included on their return. It was included, and we faxed a reply a few days later to the IRS. In yesterday’s mail the IRS reissued the same notice. All of the content is identical. The only changes are the date of the notice and the “AUR Control Number.” Here’s how I began my response:
First, this notice appears to be identical to the CP2000 for Tax Year 2018 dated December 21, 2020 that I responded to on December 30, 2020. Because everything on this notice is identical, my response is also identical.
Besides wasting my time, this just adds to the backlog of correspondence the IRS must weed through.
Second, an ongoing major issue is that the IRS has been issuing Notices of Deficiency before they read responses to AUR notices. Taxpayers are forced to file Tax Court petitions to preserve their rights, adding more backlog into the system. Clients of mine are impacted by this (they received an AUR notice in November, timely replied (and we have proof the IRS received the reply), and then received a Notice of Deficiency. We replied to that with the hope (almost certainly forlorn) that the IRS might respond to the reply prior to the last date to petition Tax Court. In yesterday’s mail there was a letter from the IRS acknowledging they received that most recent reply, but that they need more time to respond. Given what we’re seeing, I strongly suspect my clients will be filing a Tax Court petition in a few weeks.
IRS correspondence remains broken.
Tags: AUR