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After kicking off tax season with customer service and technology upgrades, the IRS this week unveiled a new option allowing taxpayers to respond more easily to certain agency notices.
The new feature lets taxpayers and professionals respond to nine notices online by digitally uploading requested documents, rather than responding by mail, according to a news release from Thursday.
“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said certified financial planner John Chichester Jr., founder and CEO of Chichester Financial Group in Phoenix. He is also a certified public accountant.
Chichester said allowing taxpayers and professionals to respond to notices online will “save everyone time and energy.”
Currently, you can use the new upload feature for the following nine notices, including earned income tax credit and child tax credit recipients, that are received by more than 500,000 taxpayers per year:
- CP04 – combat zone status
- CP05A – information request for a refund
- CP06 and CP06A – premium tax credit
- CP08 – child tax credit
- CP09, CP75 and CP75a – earned income tax credit
- CP75d – earned income tax credit and others
The IRS plans to expand the upload capability for “dozens of other notices” in the future.
“This means people can have their issues resolved much faster, including getting refunds to affected taxpayers faster,” IRS acting Commissioner Doug O’Donnell said in a statement.
If you receive one of the nine notices, it will include a link and unique access code, according to the IRS. You can use any browser to open the link, enter the access code and add personal details before uploading the necessary documents.
Paper has been a key issue for the IRS
The document-upload feature comes during a critical time for the IRS, as the agency receives $80 billion in funding over the next decade as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Throughout 2022, the IRS grappled with a backlog of millions of unprocessed returns, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said clearing the pileup was one of the top priorities for IRS funding.
Paper returns and correspondence have been a key issue, according to National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, who recently published her annual report to Congress.
“The IRS still depends on outdated manual practices and a human assembly line for its paper processing operations, and paper is its kryptonite,” she wrote in her report for 2022.