Monthly News: August 2021

Scammers are using the Child Tax Credit as a new method to try to steal your personal or financial information.  The scammer will pretend to be the IRS and even use a fake IRS website by posing as the IRS. and requesting information using the Child Tax Credit program as the pretense.  They may use text messages, emails, phone calls, or social media to try to obtain your personal information.  These criminals will advise you to complete a form to qualify for the tax credit.  The form will require you to provide your personal information such as your social security number, date of birth, or banking information.

The IRS has sent about 5 million “math error notices” that neglected to inform people of their full legal rights, according to an update from the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS). The letters were sent to inform people of corrections the IRS made to their tax returns. However, the IRS did not inform taxpayers that they only have 60 days to dispute the error in question.

“Omission of this critical piece of information was beyond just bad customer service; it was a clear infringement of a taxpayer’s right to be informed and right to a fair and just tax system,” the TAS wrote in a blog post.

According to the TAS, the faulty letters were issued to people who claimed the Recovery Rebate Credit on their tax returns. The credit was for people who didn’t get their first or second stimulus checks, or the full amount they were allowed. The credit enabled them to claim missed amounts of stimulus on their returns and receive them as part of a tax refund. Many people were mistaken about the amount of stimulus they had previously received. Consequently, there were many returns with math errors.

If you received a math error notice from the IRS, you have a right to dispute it within 60 days. An automatic abatement can be requested, during which time the IRS must reassess its correction. It’s extremely important that people are made aware of the 60-day window.

The notices sent regarding the math errors are either a CP11 Notice or a CP12 Notice. These notices do not even include the term “math error” on them. Consequently, they are confusing to many taxpayers.

Fortunately, the IRS is giving people who received a faulty letter more time to respond. According to the TAS, the IRS will send supplemental notices to affected taxpayers and start the 60-day window over again with the new notices.