subject: So You Got A Letter From The Internal Revenue Service Part Two [print this page] In part one in this four part series of articles on mail correspondence with the IRS, I informed you that there are three types of mail correspondence that the Internal Revenue Service may mail out to you: "correspondence audits" which are audits by mail, "CP-2000" letters, which let taxpayers know that they left a bit of income off of their returns, and "math error notices."
As I mentioned, with correspondence audits, the IRS will focus on an issue that stands out on a 1040 and will request that the taxpayer produce documents to prove the validity of deductions in question within thirty days. The same goes for a CP-2000 letter. These are based on a discrepancy between a taxpayer's return and documents sent by employers, banks and brokers to the IRS.
The IRS will inform the taxpayer what she supposedly omitted and will be given thirty days to explain. Sometimes you can call the IRS and let them know where the income was noted on your 1040. Expect to be put on hold however; the GOAL that the IRS hopes to achieve in terms of customer service this tax season is to answer seventy percent of all calls and only after a taxpayer wait of twelve minutes.
But with math error notices, the Internal Revenue Service will skip a step. It takes it upon itself to adjust the tax owed before asking the taxpayer to explain. The current math notice doesn't even inform the taxpayer that they have sixty days to ask for an abatement, even though they do.
Requesting an abatement in essence means that the IRS will have to to have a real human being look at the problem. If not, the tax will be automatically assessed and the unlucky taxpayer is left with three choices: pay up, wrestle with IRS' collectors or head to court. To Be Continued In Parts Three And Four
