James Pickett

It is important for taxpayers to carefully read each piece of mail that the IRS sends them. In the past, the IRS would often initiate contact with a taxpayer via a phone call. Due to numerous telephone scams, including some involving the impersonation of IRS employees, the IRS now initiates all contact by mail.

In a recent article for Industry Today, James Pickett discusses the most common types of penalties issued by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) each year. Of the 40 million penalties issued in 2017, 26 million involved three common penalties: delinquency (failure-to-file), failure-to-pay and failure-to-deposit employment taxes.

There is a letter for you.  The return address looks ominous – as the first line reads:  Internal Revenue Service.  You opened it.  Your worst fears were confirmed.  It is the dreaded notice that your individual income tax return is under audit or, to put it in the language used by the IRS, “your return has been selected for examination.” 

You checked your mail. Among the mail was an envelope with a return address that started with three words: Internal Revenue Service. Don’t panic. Receiving mail from the IRS is something millions of people experience every year