Taxpayers aren’t always receiving timely and quality responses from IRS

Most taxpayers aren’t getting timely responses to written inquiries to the IRS, and not all responses are completely accurate says a recent report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

The IRS received about 20 million letters, forms and other written correspondence from taxpayers in 2010. The TIGTA found that most final responses from the IRS were accurate; however, the interim responses were not clear as to what taxpayers should do.

The report examined random correspondence cases and found that only 19 percent of the cases received timely and accurate responses. The report also showed that the IRS is not following its own policy guidelines and has not implemented any measures or processes to monitor and evaluate the correspondence to make sure taxpayers are receiving timely responses. The IRS’s goal is to respond within 30 days. The IRS disagreed with the outcome measures the TIGTA stated in the report.

Click here to read the full report by the TIGTA.

What does this mean for you? Taxpayers should exercise patience when dealing with the IRS.