Imagination

[Snaggletooth]

Is it just my imagination, or...

Do the various taxing authorities issue a ton of queries and letters to our clients during the last 30 days or so of tax season? all of them with suspense dates just prior to April 15th.

It's like they don't want the taxpayers to have competent help available. Just send them a check.

Anyone else notice this?

[DTS]

Absolutely!

[BHoffman]

Completely agree. I've had clients get railroaded when they've attempted to deal with tax authorities by themselves. One bureaucrat in these parts tried to tell my client she couldn't take her 93 year old mother as a dependent because they had different mailing addresses. My state follows Fed law for dependents. I had to write the auditor a letter. The whole thing just disappeared. My client never heard back. I called to get a final determination letter, and was told to just:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0

[joanmcq]

I don't think its persecution

A lot of the states are catching things really quickly this year; I'm getting 2008 audit for more than just mismatched estimates which is pretty much all I've gotten in earlier years this early in the season. What it does is give the client a chance to fix it before penalties and interest accrue or before they get a refund they can't pay back. I think the IRS figured that out with EIC for once.

The IRS CP2000s always start around a year after the returns are filed. Notice season starts around the middle of Feb, and hits full stride in March then is a torrent until July or so when they start to taper down. I think all the taxing agencies are getting better at matching and data mining to find errors or possible errors, and are using this to the max to get more dollars into their treasuries. Also, for the IRS at least, last year they were so &^%ed up with the stimulus that they couldn't do as many notices and the ones they issued took twice as long to resolve.

[Snaggletooth]

Observations

Thanks for the posts -- interesting theories and observations.

My clients have presented me with 8 such letters from TN, AL,
and IRS in the last 12 days. All of them with a suspense date
from April 10-15.

Additionally, all of them except one are at partially or totally wrong.