5071C Letters

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I have had 9 clients receive 5071C identity verification letters from the IRS,

All were filed and accepted between 5/2 and 5/6

Anyone else experiencing this?

Lacerte Tax

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IRonMaN

Level 15

Those letters are getting to be more common these days.

Slava Ukraini!

sjrcpa

Level 15

I've had about 15 clients get that one or the 4883C.

Most of these returns were filed on or before April 18.

Clients are having a devil of a time getting verified. The phone line is always busy. The online ID.me option (only available with the 5071C) is not user friendly, they say. Clients are spending 4 or 5 hours to get through the process. All but one of my clients who got this are over 75. One is over 100.

I had to do the verification for my tax pro account and it took me an hour.

EDIT: P.S, Not a single one of these clients requested a refund. One owed $250K. Most had small overpayments we asked to be applied to 2023. I thought the fraudulent returns were for refunds.

The more I know the more I don’t know.

PATAX

Level 12

@sjrcpa you hit the nail on the head especially your statement that you thought fraudulent returns were filed for refunds. The first time I saw this identity verification thing was exactly for that, years ago an elderly client had a refund applied to the next year. You are exactly right, why would a fraudster not ask for the refund? SMH