Address Change

[Tax Sleuth]

A taxpayer hadn't been receiving the mail the IRS had sent him during the past few years. Finally, the taxpayer received a notice from the IRS with his correct address. Does this mean the IRS now has the correct address for him? His IRS account transcript now lists the correct address. Does Form 8822 - Change of Address - still need to be sent to the IRS in this case, or can I assume the IRS now will be sending his mail to his correct address? Please clarify this situation for me.

[Nashville]

Address

IRS doesn't have any compunction to change an address on their own (unless it suits their purpose). Form 8822 is supposed to transmit a new address for their use, but the form is designed for stand-alone, or to attach to a tax return. My own suspicion is that if it is attached to a tax return, the electronic filing process will ignore it.

So you may have a client that goes for YEARS without having an updated address with the IRS. However, if it suits their needs, the IRS can find your client on the MOON. In particular, if your client is ASSESSED, the audit division has no requirement to mail notification thereof except to the "last known address." The likely result is that your client will not answer the assessment if he has never received it at his new address, so in time, the proposed assessment becomes official, and turns it over to the collection division.

Once this happens, the collection division will find your client. Client can be living in a barn with cattle, in a sea-cave in the Mariana Trench, or on Saturn and it makes no difference. The IRS will find him.

I'm not answering why all-of-a-sudden the IRS has a correct address for your client. I don't know.

[Rapid Robert]

IRS doesn't have any compunction to change an address on their own (unless it suits their purpose). Form 8822 is supposed to transmit a new address for their use, but the form is designed for stand-alone, or to attach to a tax return. My own suspicion is that if it is attached to a tax return, the electronic filing process will ignore it.

So you may have a client that goes for YEARS without having an updated address with the IRS. [...]

I'm not answering why all-of-a-sudden the IRS has a correct address for your client. I don't know.

Your information about Form 8822 is incorrect, it specifically says right at the top of the form, "Do not attach this form to your return.". So if you incorrectly included it with a return and got no results, it's not the IRS' fault.

Leaving aside the personal rant about the IRS collection process, I too am at a loss to know why or how your client finally managed to notify the IRS of his correct address. But it doesn't seem to me like sending in a new 8822 form will accomplish anything if they already now have the correct address.

[FEDUKE404]

When to use Form 8822

It's always been my understanding a taxpayer has the obligation to advise the IRS of a current mailing address, or specifically an address change after the most recently-filed tax return.

The IRS has a long-standing policy that any IRS notices are automatically mailed to the last address they have on file for the tax account. Relying on the Postal Service to forward such mail (and it may even be marked do not forward!) is a risky endeavor.

As for attaching a Form 8822 to a tax return. . .that is just ridiculous! The actual tax return should already bear the correct mailing address. And, as already noted by Rapid Robert, Form 8822 has clearly printed at the top of the form "Do not attach this form to your return."

FE

[taxea]

It's always been my understanding a taxpayer has the obligation to advise the IRS of a current mailing address, or specifically an address change after the most recently-filed tax return.

The IRS has a long-standing policy that any IRS notices are automatically mailed to the last address they have on file for the tax account. Relying on the Postal Service to forward such mail (and it may even be marked do not forward!) is a risky endeavor.

As for attaching a Form 8822 to a tax return. . .that is just ridiculous! The actual tax return should already bear the correct mailing address. And, as already noted by Rapid Robert, Form 8822 has clearly printed at the top of the form "Do not attach this form to your return."

FE

Amen to that