IRS letter sent in error

[Jesse]

I received a certified letter today for a taxpayer that I have no clue who they are. The letter came %me, just as they normally do when I have POA, but it's for some taxpayer with an address geographically 250+/- miles away from me with a name I have never heard of.

I just find that kind of creepy, wondering if any of my IRS correspondence might me going elsewhere.

I called the IRS and they gave me a number where I should fax the letter back to with a letter stating I have no POA for this taxpayer.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

[erchess]

This has not happened to me

I hope you both faxed the letter to the IRS with the requested statement AND notified the taxpayer of the situation. I know they were supposed to get a copy of the letter but perhaps they did not. They might also like to know about the error.

[Jesse]

I faxed the letter back to the IRS and that is all I am doing. When I talked to the agent I expressed my concern that the taxpayer needs to be notified timely and I have no POA and am not associated with this taxpayer. She didn't seem too concerned and only stated they too should have received a copy.

I don't know this person and a name, address and notice of deficiency is what I received. I don't have a phone number for this person and I'm not going to try to track them down. I don't want to be involved.

[taxea]

IRS letter sent in error

the IRS would have no way of sending you the letter unless they had a POA on file. I suggest you request a list of all of your POA's from day one. Under the freedom of information act you can get this list for free...it is only if you request an actual copy of the POA that they charge you. Any chance someone used your information to keep tabs on this taxpayer? I would certainly want to clear up this issue for my peace of mind. Could be possible that whoever originally input the information at the IRS made a mistake on the POA that needs to be corrected in their computer. taxea

[Jesse]

Thanks for the suggestion, I found a form letter on the IRS site for the Freedom of information act (FOIA) Request for CAF Representative/Client Listing, which I'm sending today. I honnestly have never heard of this person and as I stated before find it kind of creepy.

I played around on eservices to try to find a list of POA under my CAF # but didn't have any luck.

[DaveO]

This happened to me recently

I have letter 2626c addressed to me as POA for a couple whom I've never heard of in a city about 60 miles away. Their names are so distinct there is no doubt between myself and the other EA in the office that we have never had a POA on either one of them let alone as a couple. When we contacted the IRS we were told it was a mistake. We made no effort to contact the taxpayers. Since they were not clients and we didn't have a POA we had no right to be privy to their tax information.

[taxea]

IRS letter sent in error

Jesse- to pull up a POA in e-services you need to have the number assigned to it when you input the POA. I haven't tried to get info on a client when the POA was faxed to the IRS service center, but suspect that if you input it via e-service (when you know the IRS already has it on file) the program may pull it up.