Just heard today from a client that she received a call from someone who claimed to be “the IRS” and she owed them $2,000 and there was a warrant for her arrest and if she did not pay exactly as instructed that she would be arrested within the hour. Well the must be catching fish or else they wouldn’t be fishing anymore.

Don’t be a fish that falls for this phony line. The IRS does not call out of the blue stating that you owe money without first sending you a notice in writing explaining the year, type of tax, amount that they believe that you owe and why. They do not just call out of the blue making threats.

(If they ask you to meet someone at some obscure location with cash agree to meet them but bring a cop with you)

However the scammers are getting wiser as too many people are now waking up to the fact that the scammers have duplicated IRS Form CP2000 letters demanding payment for an adjustment to the tax return. There are ways to spot this but the best was is to go to the IRS website and call the IRS (early in the morning before they get busy) so ask if they mailed you a notice.

Here are a few warning signs that a notice ‘from the IRS’ is fake:

• Appears to be issued from an Austin, Texas, address.
• Says the issue is related to the Affordable Care Act  and requests information regarding 2014 coverage.
• Lists the letter number in the payment voucher as 105C.
• Requests checks made out to I.R.S. and sent to the “Austin Processing Center” at a post office box.

PROBLEM ALERT

There used to be a standard process where the IRS sent a letter of “proposed correction” to your tax return, which showed the amount as filed, the proposed adjustment and the proposed adjusted amount and beneath it the taxes originally reported and proposed assessment. For some reason I am seeing more people claiming to receive notices of tax due without the opportunity to dispute the proposed assessment. So where I used to say that the IRS never sends a final tax bill before a proposed adjustment now it seems that things may have changed here as well. This is why if you receive a letter from what appears to be the Internal Revenue Service, before ignoring the letter either bring it to the attention of your accountant if you have one or call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040.

Also, payments are never made to the IRS. They are made to the United States Treasury.