Responding to Cases for a Positive Outcome

My member received a notice regarding excess social security taxes paid. This is a common problem that causes the tax return to have a higher refund than it should.

After going through the initial case review together, my member and I came to the heartbreaking conclusion that the notice was correct. The reporting of excess social security, when there had been none, would cost my member over $3,500. However, my work did not end there. As audit representatives, we are required to review our members’ tax returns in full, for other potential issues that could possibly be flagged by the IRS. Sometimes what we find turns out to be in our members’ favor. This was one of those cases.

Upon further inspection of the tax return, I came upon a rather large discrepancy. It turns out that my member had reported erroneous tax liabilities for uncollected taxes of over $11,000! While it seems hard to imagine, she had incorrectly paid the IRS an extra $11,000 the first time she filed her return, and then received a bill for an additional $3,500. I discussed my findings with the member and confirmed that this was another major mistake on her tax return.

I told the member that I would respond to the IRS and explain that the notice was correct about the excess social security, but that she had also made an $11,000 error that she deserved to get corrected. I made sure she understood that there were no guarantees that the IRS would agree right away. After we responded to the notice, the member received a collections letter that made her even more nervous. We immediately requested the IRS grant a hold on the collections due to the additional facts involved and were fortunate they agreed to put a hold on collection until the matter was resolved.

In the end, the good news came via an IRS notice explaining that the taxpayer no longer owed $3,500 and would be receiving a refund of over $7,000! The taxpayer was incredibly happy and noted that we had provided her with excellent service. It is a fact that the IRS is sometimes right. Some cases cannot be won and the taxpayer will owe money. At TaxAudit, we go the extra mile and review all information before responding to an IRS or state notice. We do our best to reach a positive outcome. Though a favorable result isn’t always possible as it was in this case, our members can feel confident in the validity of the report once a conclusion is reached.