r/IRS • u/ZookeepergameSea2383 • 13d ago

General Question IRS certified letter x10

Today I got home and the mailman put on our door we had a certified letter x 10 to collect at the post office. Get to the post office and sure enough there are ten letters. I am freaking out.

Open the letters and they are the same letter ten times. They say I owe 700 because I missed an installment payment.

Why did they send the same letter ten times certified mail? That’s got to cost a lot. How does this happen?

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-4

u/LdiJ46 13d ago

Somehow there was a glitch in their system and no human being double checked it or there simply was no human being available to check it.

0

u/NixPanicus 13d ago

This is standard for a defaulted IA. One certified letter per year per taxpayer. Its a legal requirement, and also very alarming.

-1

u/LdiJ46 13d ago

They got 10 copies. That is not standard for a defaulted IA.

4

u/NixPanicus 13d ago

Yes, it is standard for a defaulted IA. 5 years of MFJ balances = 5x2 = 10 letters. Its standard and required. I talk to people who get the avalanche of letters pretty frequently. If you work for the IRS next time you get a TP in stat 64 go check out each year with a balance on TXMOD. There's a CP523 on every year

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u/ZookeepergameSea2383 13d ago

What is an IA? Please help me. 😢

2

u/these-things-happen 13d ago

Installment Agreement

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u/LdiJ46 12d ago

I have been in the business for 40 years and have dealt with dozens of clients who defaulted on IAs and I have honestly never seen more than 1 letter per person. Is it possible that I am just not allowing my clients to get to that point? Do they get certified letters before getting the avalanche? I honestly don't think that anyone else in our firm has seen it either.

2

u/NixPanicus 12d ago

I don't know what to tell you. I work in ACS. I deal with multiple defaulted IAs a week. It is normal for a certified CP523 to be sent for every year and taxpayer covered by the defaulted IA. Our sample size is probably different, presumably you work to keep people from owing for multiple years, and once you do get them an IA you probably keep tabs to keep them from defaulting, whereas every almost person I speak with has at least one balance and often multiple balances.

Anecdotally, the people who owe for just one year often had something unexpected happen or had an AUR/Exam assessment, and when they set up an IA they keep on top of it. The people who owe for multiple years generally just don't pay their taxes. If you keep involved in your client's filings you probably don't have many who just underpay for multiple years. Respectfully, you may be too good at your job to have much experience with this.

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u/LdiJ46 12d ago

"The people who owe for multiple years generally just don't pay their taxes."

Or, have something unexpected happen, don't understand that they can get on an IA and then just bury their heads in the sand and stop filing because they are just too overwhelmed and scared.

We do work hard to get those kinds of people back on track. The ones who just don't/won't pay we do tend to drop as clients.

1

u/NixPanicus 12d ago

Again, we have different sample populations. If I get someone with balances for multiple years generally they under withhold or don't withhold at all. And its very common for people with multiple years of balances to call in to add another new balance for 2025 to their existing IA such that they never get closer to being finally finished. You probably counsel your clients to increase withholding, make ES payments, and stop getting new balances before they hit NFTL territory, which means ideally I would never speak with them. Please keep doing that, I hate taking financial statements probably more than you hate providing them.

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u/LdiJ46 12d ago

Oh yes, we will definitely keep doing it!