I deliberately did not file any returns with a balance due as my crystal ball said this would be an issue 😉 so none of my clients have received notices.
I did find this on a different list-serve:
Notice 1155-G is included with the CP-14 Notice.
Disaster Relief from the IRS
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recently issued a disaster declaration. The IRS announced that taxpayers
in your area may quality for administrative disaster tax relief Administrative disaster tax relief generally includes postponement of
most filing and payment deadlines. lf your IRS address of record is in the covered disaster area listed in the news release, you will
automatically receive IRS administrative disaster tax relief. Visit
www.irs.gov and search "lRS News From Around the Nation" to view
the news release.
But it's in a much smaller font, looks like "junk mail," and the clients don't read it.
So tell your clients to read the fine print and ignore the CP-14 notice.
Edit... and more:
I’ve had several clients receive the notices as well. Filing extensions doesn’t prevent this, since it’s auto generated when a return with balance due is filed yet payment has not been made. We called the IRS disaster hotline, and they confirmed disaster relief applies to postpone the payments until 10/16 and no interest/penalties will be assessed.
They said we could get a POA and call to have the notices temporarily stop, but only for 9 weeks… which is useless. My firm has decided to ignore the notices and assure clients they still have until 10/16 to pay without interest or penalties. We’re also giving them a heads up that they may continue to receive these automatic notices in the meantime.
I’ve reached out to my local IRS stakeholder liaison, and they are aware of the issue and considering escalating internally. I’ve asked them to confirm that the accounts won’t get kicked into collections in the meantime if we don’t respond.
The liaison asked for a few copies of the notices so they can see what is being communicated and what they are instructing taxpayers to do on them. I sent to them, but it’s really just a notice that there’s a balance due that hasn’t been paid and a request to pay by a certain date. One client did also scan the insert that Gina mentioned, indicating disaster relief may apply. However, the notices really could be a lot more clear and say that if disaster relief applies, ignore the notice. I’m not confident their system is equipped to suspend these notices though.
Just a bit more background for anyone interested:
The liaison shared that for the CA storm relief, the applicable code they use to suspend interest and penalties on accounts is “S” and not “O” and provided the following distinctions:
- “IRM –
3.14.2.7.6.19 Disaster Freeze (-S) Notice Review - The -S freeze is a systemic disaster indicator that gives the IRS flexibility to grant filing and payment relief without suspending compliance activities and thegeneration of notices when the impact and scope of a federally declared disaster does NOT warrant the use of the -O Freeze.
- IRM -
3.14.2.7.6.14 - Disaster Freeze (-O) - The -O freeze allows the Service to provide special processing related to any filing, payment or interest relief, granted for a geographical area. It is input systemically at the request of the Disaster Program Office.
· IRM -
3.14.2.7.4.4 - Natural Disaster Procedures - Notice Suppression - The Disaster Relief Memorandum identifies the covered disaster area (zip codes) and the beginning and ending dates for notice suppression and/or stuffer requirements. If systemic notice suppression is established by an - O Freeze, no further action is required to suppress notices.
The S freeze will not suspend notices but O freeze does. The IRMs still do not answer to your question of whether to disregard/ignore the notice until 10/16th. This question is too specific. IRS cannot provide an answer.
Please call the disaster line to ask instead.”
"*******Tax software is no substitute for a professional tax preparer*******
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