With tax season approaching, this blog addresses the ways in which the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) will contact you… and the ways in which it will not.
PROBABLY
Generally, your first contact with the IRS will be through old-fashioned U.S. mail delivered to you by the U.S. Postal Service. You can verify that the IRS sent you the letter or notice through the IRS’s official website.
In limited cases, a letter may be received from one of three IRS-assigned private collection agencies: CBE Group Inc., Coast Professional, Inc., or ConServe. Before this happens, however, the IRS will issue you a Notice CP40 and Publication 4518 to let you know that your overdue tax account was assigned to one of the above-mentioned agencies. Your notifications from the IRS and collection agency will have a taxpayer authentication number to confirm your identity and the legitimacy of the correspondence.
MAYBE
There are a few other ways that the IRS may contact you, nearly all of which occur subsequent to the initial U.S.P.S. delivered document and your consenting to the communication method. As you progress your matter with the IRS, it may correspond with you via e-mail, text message, telephone, and/or facsimile. Also, the IRS may visit you in person. A face-to-face visit, however, is rare and usually scheduled.
Four types of IRS employees may unexpectedly visit your home or business: revenue agents, revenue officers, special agents, and fuel inspectors. All four have official identification; however, the official identification carried by each type varies. Should you be visited by an IRS employee, you can verify their identification by calling the number provided on their identification. Call 911 if you feel unsafe or the IRS employee does not present their identification upon request.
DEFINITELY NOT
The IRS will not send you a Snapchat to let you know that it made a calculation error and owes you a seven-figure refund, nor will the IRS slide into your Facebook DMs to warn you that you are in big trouble and the only way to prevent such problem is to respond with your social security number and mail a large sum of gift cards to an unknown address.
In sum, the IRS will never reach out to you or request a payment via social media. Also, the IRS will not threaten to call law enforcement or immigration officials, revoke your driver’s or business license, leave a pre-recorded voicemail, or send you an advertisement to resolve a tax debt.
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