IRS suspends sending more than a dozen additional letters: why

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The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that as part of ongoing efforts to provide additional help to people during this period, will suspend the sending of more than a dozen additional letters.

These emails include balance due notices and notices of unfiled tax returns.

The reason for this action is because the IRS entered this filing season with several million original and amended returns that have not been processed due to the challenges of the pandemic and is taking this step to avoid confusion between taxpayers and tax professionals.

“IRS employees are committed to doing everything possible with our limited resources to help people during this time,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig.

Automatic notifications have been temporarily stopped until the delay is fixed. The IRS will continue to evaluate the inventory of returns from prior years to determine the appropriate time to resume them.

Notices of Individual Taxpayers that will be suspended:

Notice/Card number: CP80
Qualification: Tax return not filed

Notice/Card number: CP59 and CP759
Title: Unfiled Tax Return(s) – 1st Notice

Notice/Letter number: CP516 and CP616
Title: Unfiled Tax Returns – 2nd Notice

Notice/Letter number: CP518 and CP618
Qualification: Final notice: delinquent return

Notice/Card Number: CP501
Qualification: Balance Due: First Notice

Notice/Card number: CP503
Title: Balance Due: Second Notice

Notice/Letter number: CP504
Title: Final Balance Due Notice: Third Notice, Intent to Garnish

Notice/Letter Number: 2802C
Qualification: Withholding Compliance Letter

Commercial adverts:

Notice/Letter number: CP259 and CP959
Qualification: Refund of delinquency

Notice/Letter number: CP518 and CP618
Qualification: Final notice: delinquent return

The IRS explained that some taxpayers and tax professionals may still receive these notices for the next few weeksbut generally, there is no need to call or respond to the notice as the agency continues to process prior year tax returns as quickly as possible.

However, if a taxpayer or tax professional believes that a notice is important, they must act to rectify the situation in the best interest of the taxpayer. For example, if the IRS notices that people have a balance due that can continue to accrue interest and penalties.

In addition, the agency notes that its employees may, under certain circumstances, issue notices to certain taxpayers to resolve specific problems of compliance.

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