Anyone else getting IRS letters from tax year 2007 and 2006?

[dixiegrrrrl]

The letters claim the tax payer owes money for penalties and interest, often on taxes that have been filed and paid, sometimes when no taxes were accrued, no form needed to be filed.
MY CPA said he has seen quite a few letters from customers of late, I have heard of others.

Anyone?

[Gman2]

1. They want their pound of flesh. Especially if you are getting other gov money.

[Swede]

2. I get them all the time,and I live in Canada.

Some kind of spam,I imagine.

[Thickasabrick]

3. Mine creep up about 3 years late - I've usually over deducted for

something. They must be looking for every dime and increasing the audits from past years. After 7 years they can't go back.

[robinlynne]

7. oh yes they can. If they find a mistkae within the past seven, they can go back as far as they want.

If your pa seven have no mistakes, they cannot go back farther.
I only know this because I wanted to throw away some old boxes of taxes from the 90s so I called the IRS to check first.

[Thickasabrick]

8. Thank you! I don't know where I got 7 from - but now that everything

is on computer I don't have to worry about throwing 7 year old papers away.

[robinlynne]

16. Everyone always said 7 years. That's what they can audit. But if they find a mistake....

[intheozone]

30. Wrong, the statute of limitations on assessment is 3 years from the date of filing, unless

your filed return fails to report 25% or more of your income or in cases of fraud. If there is fraud, there is an unlimited statute, if you fail to report 25% or more of your income, the statute is 6 years. You are advised to maintain your records for 6 to 7 years though.

[robinlynne]

33. are you positive?. Can I shred those old notebooks?

[gleaner]

4. Are you sure the .....

letters are authentic? Call taxpayer service at IRS and ask if they are sending the letters out. Never pay on anything like that unless you are sure it is really IRS generated and after they have proved that you really do owe them money under existing tax law. It could be a scam.

I keep getting letters that purport to be from my bank saying that they will refinance my mortgage and lower my payments. They are a fake. My bank was taken over by another bank and they are using the old name. Also when I called my bank to ask about the letters they told me they were a scam. The only way to get a mortgage renovated is through the bank and with the help of a lawyer, most likely. This may be the new Nigerian Bank scam. ;)

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Yeah, I took them to my CPA, the same one who has done all my taxes.

He said a lot of folks are bringing in the letters, they are authentic, ( He meets with IRS folks frequently)
I heard some other folks who have also paid their taxes, and are getting "claims" for "interest" on prior taxes that were filed, even tho they do not owe any money.
In my case, the IRS said my entire savings account was "income" and they want to tax it.
The CPA just laughed and shook his head, he says they fire off letters willy-nilly but haven't a clue,
however, he says he is seeing more of these absurd claim letters this year.
Which let me to believe they are digging around for any source of money for the Treasury.

[gleaner]

26. Probably so ...

Your CPA is right. Only interest income on bank accounts is taxable and you have to have an awful lot of that to make a serious dent.

I'm glad you checked it out, and I hope you fight it. A lot of people would just pay without question and it would be money they do not owe.

[Mira]

31. I got one on Friday, late afternoon. I owe, they say 10 056.-- for 2007

almost a thousand of that is accrued interest on a debt they never told me about.

Turns out - today - that I don't owe them anything.
It's all paid, and I have the checks to prove it.

I'm glad I did not let it ruin my weekend.
( I don't make a lot, but that year I sold a piece of property. I had paid all the taxes, I knew I had. Good thing the banks save the statements and the checks)

but I do wonder what's going on....

K&R
10 grand is nothing to sneeze at

[itsrobert]

5. I think you should pay your taxes

Nothing unpatriotic about doing so.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. Did I say I have not or will not pay my legal taxes????

[robinlynne]

6. I jsut got 2002-2008 city of Los Angeles. a city tax I never heard of before, plus interest and

penalties, of course.

[Thickasabrick]

9. Send them an IOU nt

[Ready4Change]

10. Letters? Or Emails?

There's a HUGE email virus/spam thing going on. Delete them, do not open them, and especially do not open their attachment files.

Several people at my workplace have been hit by that thing.

Don't know anything about snail-mai letters.

[HipChick]

11. I got a bill for $30K....

after I picked myself up off the floor.....I wrote and told them I disagreed with them, and sent them a reason why...they came back with a new bill of $68...yeah..they want their pound of flesh alright

BTW, they have recently upgraded a lot of their computer systems,so I'm sure this will happen a lot more.. x(

[dixiegrrrrl]

18. Computer upgrades...good to know.

Esp. since the letters are coming from an IRS tax center in Fresno, and we moved across country 4 years ago. And filed in this state last year.
good info. They are definitely computer letters.
Any they make no sense, refer to DIV 99 statements which never generated any taxable event for the years they are claiming.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. I got some spam/virus e-mail

allegedly about under-reporting of income. My virus=catcher caught it.

[Thickasabrick]

21. I get two of those everyday. I sent a couple of them to the IRS. nt

[Blue_In_AK]

24. Do you get the UPS tracker ones, too? n/t

[Thickasabrick]

29. Yes - and the Federal Express ones too!! nt

[rucky]

15. Yep.

I thought it was a fluke.

[zbdent]

17. self-employed, or do you work for someone?

I wonder if your employer has been holding onto your payroll taxes and pocketing the interest ...

I believe that's illegal ...

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. Nope, that is not the issue in my case.

Without going into too much personal detail, the issue *is*
that the IRS seems to be ramping up sending claim letters to people,
perhaps in the hope that folks will just send a check rather than go to
a CPA to sort out the bogus claim.
So I asked the question in the first post if anyone is aware of this, hoping to get an idea if this is indeed widespread as I have heard.
It has already been established that these are genuine letters from the IRS, not e-mail, not issues of under-with holding, etc.

[Thickasabrick]

23. Sounds like you are on to something and this is some kind of

computer glitch. When I do get letters from them about past years I have filed, in every case they have been correct. I do my own taxes so sometimes I screw up.

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. That kinda makes sense,since I have gotten duplicate letters

2 weeks apart.
2 for 2007
then later 2 for 2006.
Identical for each year, but very certainly computer generated.
I am now starting to think that they have a puter program that "reads" DIV 99 statements and cannot tell income from re-invested earnings or something. It looked like it added up my 99's and said that was all income. Of course it wasn't since it was in retirement accounts that were not touched.
But, what you said makes for a very plausible explanation.
Thank you.:hi:

[gristy]

19. I got one last week. They say my income on my return doesn't match their records.

And for this, they say I owe them $761.

[dixiegrrrrl]

22. May I ask which year that is for?

and how you are planning to handle it?

[Abq_Sarah]

27. They've gotten more aggressive and sloppy

I got a notice for my 2nd quarter 941's. They credited June's payment to May and said (at the very bottom of the letter) May's payment would be credited in 3-5 weeks but meanwhile, send in May's payment again along with a penalty.

So, I called the IRS and they confirmed that I owed a penalty and interest. I mentioned that they had debited my tax account on the 14th of May and the person on the phone said to send the payment again.

So, I waited 3 weeks and called them back. After speaking to them again, they have fixed their error, removed the penalty and interest.

This is just absurd. I know the government is hurting for money but the people who have to pay it are hurting even worse. The last thing they need is to be strong armed into paying money they may well not owe.

[Heddi]

28. I got one for 2008

re: tuition deduction for my husband. Apparently I had already claimed the tuition on 2007's taxes and then claimed it again on 2008 by mistake (it was for Winter quarter, which started in Jan but was paid for in Dec, so techincally I could claim it on either year's taxes). I had forgotten and claimed it last year.

So I sent documentation and I just had to pay back the amount, plus about $8 in interest. But now I'm afraid I'm flagged for life

[dixiegrrrrl]

32. Update on the issue:

Talked to CPA this am. Told him I had reports from people all over that IRS was sending claim letters, and he confirmed he has been hearing about it too, that "many people get scared and just send in money and that adds up over time".
And he says the IRS computer just spews demand every 2 weeks, automatically, until issue is resolved one way or other, but for 4 weeks AFTER issue is resolved computer will continue to spew claim letters.
Wonderful expense for the mailings by the millions, too.

Another DU er says her tax person says tons of letters showing up in her state.
IRS is playing bingo and trying to hit the jackpot with people who are too afraid to question them.

Again, I emphasize that he has confirmed with me that I owe NO money, that the IRS claims are incorrect.