FYI: IRS Sends 200,000 Balance Due Notices by Mistake

[Jesse]

IRS Sends 200,000 Balance Due Notices by Mistake

Due to a computer processing glitch, the IRS mailed 200,000 CP-14 balance due notices to taxpayers who filed electronically. These notices told the taxpayers that their balance was due by April 15, even if they had already designated automatic withdrawal from their bank accounts.

These notices were not to be processed in the middle of tax season, and instead should have been processed after the database had been updated to account for direct debit payments.

The IRS has stated that if a taxpayer consequently pays twice using direct debit and check, the IRS will automatically issue a refund for any overpayment.

It is important to note that not all taxpayers have received a Notice CP-14 in error. If the bank account listed on the tax return was listed incorrectly, a taxpayer would receive this notice.

[BHoffman]

Where did you see this? Can you give a link?

[Koss]

Source

Forbes Blog by a journalist named Ashlea Ebeling...

http://blogs.forbes.com/ashleaebeling/2011/03/15/whoops-irs-sends-200000-balance-due-notices-by-mistake/

BMK

[Jesse]

I received it in my NATP weekly email.

[BHoffman]

Thanks Koss and Jesse - I added that to my facebook page "Free tax advice and worth every penny". People line up to read whatever I post. They really do

[S T]

NAEA just posted

NAEA posted this 3/18/11

Potential Bal Due e-File Problem—a follow up
Given that erroneous notices from IRS are troublesome both to EAs and their clients, the GR team probed further and would like to offer the following update to last week's article.
Cycle 9 (week ending March 4) is the cutoff for the bal due returns that were accidentally processed and it appears roughly ten percent of the total e-filed bal due returns (1.98 million as of February 28) fell into this bucket. If the taxpayer scheduled an ACH payment of the bal due, that payment will be processed as scheduled. If the taxpayer is submitting a check, (s)he should use the Form 1040V payment voucher and follow the standard filing procedure (and timing). All of the erroneous CP-14 notices should have been mailed by the week ending March 11. While the inquiries we received were from the west coast, the accidental processing does not appear to be geographically limited.
Should you have any questions about a particular taxpayer who received a CP-14 or should the debit date come and IRS fail to draw the specified amount (which, of course, would be troublesome given the rather hefty failure to pay penalty IRS could/would assess), please let the GR team know so that we may advocate on your behalf with IRS.

Sandy