I’m a Cubs fan. As such, I’m always waiting for next year.
I have a client who has been waiting since October to get his IRS notice issue resolved. I’ve written about it twice before. Back in March, we received a collection notice. I called the IRS up, and they put a nine-week hold on the account. That wasn’t long enough; last month, a second collection notice was received and another nine-week hold was put on the account. It turns out only four additional weeks were necessary.
Yes, I’ve been telling my client that next month would it would get resolved. (Luckily, I hadn’t said which next month.) Today, I received another IRS notice regarding this client. The IRS reviewed the paperwork I had sent back in October and agreed completely with what I sent. My client will get his $24 refund very soon. It only took a total of eight months.
There are two takeaways on this case. First, be patient. If you write the IRS, it could take a long, long time to get a resolution. I suspect the delays may vary by service center. This set of notices came out of Philadelphia; they appear to be having the lengthiest delays.
Second, the underlying notice was a math error (CP11) notice. The only problem with that is there were no errors on the original return. Somehow, the IRS computer took the numbers from an electronically filed return and made its own math mistake. Yet had we not challenged the notice, 60 days after it was sent my client’s only choice would be to pay the tax and then file a claim for refund.
In any case, this is finally resolved (and with a happy ending).
This isn’t a recent thing. I remember an incident from my childhood in which my parents amended their return and kept getting no response–until my mother sent a birthday card to their amended return. Strictly by coincidence of course, they got their refund two weeks later.