Nothing gets the attention quite like a rejection notice from the IRS. Even a tax accountant, who deals with a mountain of mostly benign correspondences with that agency cringes when he see one of those.
Last week, we received notice that a bulk mailing of many client filing extensions had been rejected, en masse. Presumably because the mailing was postmarked several days late – April 20th – rather than on or before this year’s deadline of April 17th.
That time of the year is certainly chaotic around here, and things do occasionally get lost in the shuffle (e.g. sleeping, eating on a regular schedule, etc.). But one thing paid more than it’s share of attention are the deadlines. You can be certain that our mailing of the all those Form 4868s was done with time to spare. And certainly not three days lates. To say some choice words directed at said agency were thrown around the office is putting it lightly!
In the following few days, many phone calls were made, through many level of bureaucracy. A request for review letter or two was dropped in the mail. But nothing reassuring from the IRS, just how to go about the various steps that needed fulfilling in order for them to review their decision.
And then a few days later, I fire up my neglected iTunes, download my backlogged podcasts, and find Ed Zollars latest entry.
The IRS has now released information on the potential improper denial of extensions to 50,000 taxpayers who had paper form 4868s filed with the Fresno Service Center. Those taxpayers affected appear to some taxpayers whose extensions were filed by paid preparers in bulk with Fresno.
Apparently it was all a touch of human error – someone had a really bad day. And, my guess is, will likely have at least one more!
At least we know what happened, and it’s probably safe to now unclench… 
But it sure would have been nice if the IRS could have given us a heads up on this since they should have, I presume anyway, noted our concerns somewhere.
Nevertheless, thanks much Ed! Not only did you relieve a bit of stress around here, but you made me look like a minor god around the office for discovering and revealing this info to my less-than-tech-savvy boss! 
[tags]taxes,4868,extension,IRS,rejected,human error,podcast[/tags]
