USPS informed letter -here comes a letter from the IRS!

[Hisgirl]

My parents passed this year and I filed their taxes using a CPA, paid what was due, and double checked the check was received and cashed. Today a letter is arriving from the IRS for my parents, who filed jointly.

I hate getting a letter from the IRS. It's never good news! Congratulations! We're sending you cupcakes!

So today I wait. Knowing all the financial scams, I'm nervous someone filed in their name. I do have their credit reports frozen for years now. Ugh.

 

[Christine]

I had an IRS letter that I saw in my Informed Delivery last week. It came two days later. They were responding to my inquiry that I made in January 2022 regarding my deceased father-in-law's tax return. Of which they botched so badly. Good luck with all that. We had a terrible time with my FIL's taxes but he was owed $6,000 which made it very difficult.

 

[gmi3804]

My parents passed this year and I filed their taxes using a CPA, paid what was due, and double checked the check was received and cashed. Today a letter is arriving from the IRS for my parents, who filed jointly.

I hate getting a letter from the IRS. It's never good news! Congratulations! We're sending you cupcakes!

So today I wait. Knowing all the financial scams, I'm nervous someone filed in their name. I do have their credit reports frozen for years now. Ugh.

I get those all the time, every year after filing, either from personal, business, or trust filings. I usually end up owing something like $6 plus interest, because of a miscalculation or a missing statement.

 

[Hisgirl]

What's scary is if it's from a few years back. Can you imagine getting a letter stating your parents made a mistake three years ago??
I think I have everything but lordy, I'm still recovering from the estate closure. And now I'll have to file all over again for the six weeks they lived in 2023.
I'll come back and update on what it was. Hopefully the mail comes early today.

 

[nw6675]

I have a love hate relationship with Informed Delivery...

 

[kdonnel]

Every year I get a filing pin from the IRS. Every year I forget it is coming and wonder what the letter is about.

 

[tvguy]

We've gotten a couple of letters over the years. Always asking some simple question that was resolved by just answering the question.
The IRS systems seem odd to me. We got a letter asking why my wife had not filed a return under her maiden name. This was the second tax year we have filed joint returns, and was sent to our current address, which my wife was never associated with when using her maiden name.

 

[cvjw]

When we get mail from the IRS, they are usually sending us envelopes to make it easier to send them more money.

 

[longboard55]

I received notice that I had to call the IRS to verify identity. It took me 4 weeks.to finally get through but we had a nice chat. She indicated the IRS is grossly understaffed and just do not have the people to get things done. So just do what is asked do expect response soon .

 

[LoveSpringsteen]

I have a love hate relationship with Informed Delivery...

Same here!

 

[Hisgirl]

Well here's the update!
I called first thing in the morning right at 8am, and only had to wait a few minutes. Turns out, they DID have the payment but it had never been attached to the tax return.
Apparently even though the returned was e-filed in March, it wasn't processed until October and the check payment was never associated with the return.
Kind of amazing, but things should be sorted out now.

 

[soccerdad72]

Well here's the update!
I called first thing in the morning right at 8am, and only had to wait a few minutes. Turns out, they DID have the payment but it had never been attached to the tax return.
Apparently even though the returned was e-filed in March, it wasn't processed until October and the check payment was never associated with the return.
Kind of amazing, but things should be sorted out now.

We're dealing with the same thing right now. We file Married filing Jointly, and I make our quarterly estimated payments online. I've been doing this for years. Last week, we got a letter saying we had underpaid and we owed a considerable amount of money (5 figures). After multiple hours on hold with the IRS on Tuesday, with multiple hang ups as she was being transferred to different people, it turns out that because her SSN is listed as the primary taxpayer, payments made under my SSN was not associated with the return, even though the letter from the IRS was to both our names.

 

[georgina]

We're dealing with the same thing right now. We file Married filing Jointly, and I make our quarterly estimated payments online. I've been doing this for years. Last week, we got a letter saying we had underpaid and we owed a considerable amount of money (5 figures). After multiple hours on hold with the IRS on Tuesday, with multiple hang ups as she was being transferred to different people, it turns out that because her SSN is listed as the primary taxpayer, payments made under my SSN was not associated with the return, even though the letter from the IRS was to both our names.

It is weird. I make online estimated payments under DH's SSN because he is listed first. But when I log in to my IRS account, I can't see any of them. So I have to keep good records about what I paid.

 

[barkley]

Well here's the update!
I called first thing in the morning right at 8am, and only had to wait a few minutes. Turns out, they DID have the payment but it had never been attached to the tax return.
Apparently even though the returned was e-filed in March, it wasn't processed until October and the check payment was never associated with the return.
Kind of amazing, but things should be sorted out now.

glad you got things sorted out. we helped our oldest deal with an issue for what dragged on over a year and a half. graduated college in '18 and around '21 got an irs notice disallowing the way their return was done in something like '16 b/c they questioned the student grants, scholarships and campus job. our cpa who does LOTS of student tax returns (we live in a big college area) was like 'nope, it's right-we will send the supporting documentation'. for close to a year we got the same letter about every 45 days saying they were in receipt of the reply, were processing it, would respond within 45 days....but 'be aware, interest on the owed amount continues to accrue'. we get another letter again disallowing the method cpa used so cpa (who also did adjunct teaching at the local university) ended up printing out the irs's own instructional materials on the topic and sending it along with HER student study guide for the topic. took another 6 or so months but they finaly agreed that the return was correct.

I make our quarterly estimated payments online

i think we are looking at having to do something like this next year but i'm wondering if it would just be easier to take one of our pensions and opt to have them send a flat amount monthly then do a return for a refund of any overpayment.

i HATE dealing with taxes.

 

[wabbott]

We do quarterly payments ever since we retired and no longer collect a paycheck. We do no withholding - none, nada, zilch.

Every quarter when I prepare the payments, I make a copy of the checks and vouchers that I send to the IRS and the state. Once the checks clear, I make copies of the cleared checks, front and back. In the last couple of years, the IRS no longer returns the checks to the bank, but I have access to the online statements showing the payments.

Several years ago, the IRS claimed a payment wasn't made, so I wrote them a letter, along with the proof, and that cleared it up.

 

[Disneychick75]

The last time we got an IRS letter, it stated they owed us about $ 10,000. We had to end up going through our US rep. to get our money from the IRS that they said they owed us!

 

[georgina]

i think we are looking at having to do something like this next year but i'm wondering if it would just be easier to take one of our pensions and opt to have them send a flat amount monthly then do a return for a refund of any overpayment.

i HATE dealing with taxes.

We are not taking RMDs yet from DH's IRA, but once he is required to I read that you can have them withhold the entire amount of your estimated taxes owed and they treat it as having been paid evenly over the year, even if you take the distribution at year end. This would eliminated our need to pay quarterly fed taxes (still owe state taxes though)

 

[china mom]

We are not taking RMDs yet from DH's IRA, but once he is required to I read that you can have them withhold the entire amount of your estimated taxes owed and they treat it as having been paid evenly over the year, even if you take the distribution at year end. This would eliminated our need to pay quarterly fed taxes (still owe state taxes though)

That is very good information to know. We are not there yet but I will keep that in mind for when we are. Writing quarterly check in addition to our payroll deductions is hurting my feelings.

 

[georgina]

That is very good information to know. We are not there yet but I will keep that in mind for when we are. Writing quarterly check in addition to our payroll deductions is hurting my feelings.

Here's a link to the article -

https://www.kiplinger.com/retiremen...-rmds/603438/rmd-solution-for-estimated-taxes