You have
likely read or heard that the IRS will not contact you by telephone. If you
receive a phone call claiming to be the IRS, hang up immediately. It is a
fraud.
Then we read
that some IRS offices were calling people.
Sigh.
I admit, it
came as a surprise to me too.
Only a
government agency could be this flat-footed.
Let’s talk
about it.
To most of
us, a call from the IRS is a call from the IRS. We are not particularly
concerned whether it is examination, collections or Star Trek productions.
But to the
IRS there is a difference. You see, Examination is the part of the IRS that
audits you, disallowing all your deductions and assessing penalties for the
presumption to deduct anything in the first place. Once you have served your
time in the White Tower, your file is turned over to Collections. These kindly
people will explain how you can easily pay $45,000 over 12 months when you only
make $40,000 annually. It takes a little discipline and the elimination of
frivolous expenses, like food, shelter and a car to get you to work .
Collections
will never call you.
But it turns
out that certain Examinations offices would.
The IRS explanation
borders on a Zucker brothers comedy.
The IRS
really, really thought that people would understand that Examinations is not
Collections. How could there possibly be any confusion?
To be fair,
they had a point. You see, Examinations will not ask for money. They may ask to
set up a time for you to see them downtown, but the money part is later. They
reasoned that fraudsters would not pretend to be Examinations, as that is not
whether the money is. Fraudsters would pretend to be Collections.
Even though the average person could no more identify different IRS departments than identify different varieties of quinoa.
After all
this went public, the IRS has NOW said that will not initiate contact by
telephone, whether it be Examinations or Collections.
Good.
Mind you,
this does not mean that they will never call. It does mean that their initial
contact will be by mail. Once you are engaged with them – say you are in audit
– then they may call. That seems reasonable. First contact does not.
