# CP80 letter??



## sueinwales (Oct 4, 2017)

Just getting to grips with it all.
Filed this year after 30+ years in the UK- so submitted 2016 return to one address with a cheque, and 2013,14 and 15 Streamlined returns to another address with another cheque, back in september 2017.

Within a couple of weeks received a check back from US Treasury for, wait for it, $1.07. No letter, no explanation, just the check. Postage on the envelope was $1.50, so not sure why they bothered. For fun i called my bank here to enquire the charge for processing this check. they thought it would be £20.....

Today, Saturday 9 Dec, i received a CP80 letter from the IRS, noting that i had a credit for $40 relating to my 2014 tax return, and also noting that i NEEDED TO FILE my 2014 return (or resubmit it with a fresh signature if i had already done so). This letter was dated 20 November, so it has taken 20 days to reach me.

Any ideas what might be going on? I am presuming the 2016 return has been dealt with as they sent me a refund for that year. I did wonder if the $40 credit came from my 2013 return, but this makes no sense as the three tax returns for 2013-2015 were all sent in a single envelope, so they couldn't have received 2013 but not 2014.

Has the world gone mad?? 

Any ideas gratefully received.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Regardless of what they would like you to think, the IRS has been known to make mistakes on occasion. First thing I'd do is to go to the IRS website and ask for transcripts of your returns. That will at least tell you if they have been processed.

Then, you may want to call the tax help line (for overseas taxpayers) https://www.irs.gov/help/help-with-tax-questions-international-taxpayers to see what's going on. (It will help if you can tell them whether or not you could get a transcript of that 2014 return.)
Cheers,
Bev


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## sueinwales (Oct 4, 2017)

Thanks Bev, transcripts now requested.


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## sueinwales (Oct 4, 2017)

update- called the IRS international number today (on hold for 20 minutes, can't wait to see the phone bill). The very nice agent checked my record and told me that they have in fact received all of the returns that i sent in, but that 'sometimes the computer sends out a notice before the forms are processed'. 

Will be interesting to see what the transcripts show.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

Great! And it never hurts to have a copy of the transcripts just for handy reference.
Cheers,
Bev


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## BearDown (Sep 20, 2014)

sueinwales said:


> update- called the IRS international number today (on hold for 20 minutes, can't wait to see the phone bill). The very nice agent checked my record and told me that they have in fact received all of the returns that i sent in, but that 'sometimes the computer sends out a notice before the forms are processed'.
> 
> Will be interesting to see what the transcripts show.


I know this is an older post, but just wanted to add the IRS as well as state tax departments all have very compartamentalized ways of processing documents. Just recently a client asked me to check on the status of a return that they paper filed; they had seen that their bank account had been debited for the amount of the check they had sent in and wanted to see if the return had been accepted. When I spoke to an agent, they confirmed they had cashed the check, but their was a backlog on processing returns and it would be another month before they actually even looked at the return. Thought that it was kind of funny that they had no problem cashing the check immediately but were in no rush to process the return.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

> Thought that it was kind of funny that they had no problem cashing the check immediately but were in no rush to process the return.


Ah, but that just tells me that they're running the IRS like a "business" these days.

Back when I was an auditor, the "preferred" process for handling any sort of remittance was to separate immediately the contents of the envelope into the payment (i.e. the check - pre online payment days) and the remittance advice or order form or whatever else was in there. The check immediately went into the day's bank deposit, and the rest of the stuff was then routed for processing. But depositing the checks was the priority!
Cheers,
Bev


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