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?
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.
"Anyone else experiencing this?"
Sign up for e-newsletters, here:
https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIRS/subscriber/new?preferences=true#tab1
To get these into your email directly. This one came yesterday:
Issue Number: Tax Tip 2023-74
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/the-irs-alerts-taxpayers-of-suspected-identity-theft-by-letter
Yes, a whole lot of these are being sent.
@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
3 of my clients in the past 2 weeks. All are elderly with balances due.
You have clicked a link to a site outside of the Intuit Accountants Community. By clicking "Continue", you will leave the community and be taken to that site instead.