Every year, the IRS sends countless notices to taxpayers. Although this can be frightening, you should not delay responding to the IRS. Here are some helpful tips:
- Read tax notice thoroughly. Pay close attention to deadlines.
- If you don’t agree with the tax notice, it’s important you respond in writing and include any documents and information you wish the IRS to review. Usually, the IRS will give you approximately 30 days to respond, which can go by very quickly. If the date to respond has already passed, it’s important that you still respond.
- If you don’t understand the tax notice you should contact your tax preparer immediately. They will provide you with some clarity.
- Most of the time the IRS will send out a notice commonly referred to as a matching notice. This is when the IRS receives wages or income associated with your social security number from reported sources such as bank statements or W-2’s.
- If the IRS is unable to match the income received with your social security number to your tax return then you will receive a tax notice. If you are ever unsure that your tax return included all of the reported income associated with your social security number you may want to request a wage and income transcript. The IRS will provide you a transcript that will show you all of the wages and income that were reported in association to your social security number. If you ever find an error within the transcript you should contact your tax preparer to let them know.
Due to recent increase in IRS phone scams it’s important to remember that the IRS will never call you regarding money due. Their only method of contact is through the United States Postal Service (USPS).
If you have any questions, please contact your LSL CPAs tax team representative at (714) 672-0022.
