5071C Letters

[safcpa]

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?

[IRonMaN]

Those letters are getting to be more common these days.

[sjrcpa]

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.

[qbteachmt]

"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.

[PATAX]

@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

[strongsilence]

3 of my clients in the past 2 weeks.  All are elderly with balances due.