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After kicking off tax season with customer service and technology upgrades, the IRS this week unveiled a new option that allows taxpayers to respond more easily to specific agency notices.
The new feature allows taxpayers and professionals to respond to nine notices online by uploading required documents digitally, rather than responding by mail, according to a Thursday press release.
“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.
Allowing taxpayers and professionals to respond to notices online, Chichester said, “would save everyone time and energy.”
Currently, you can use the new upload feature for the following nine notices, including the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit recipients, which more than 500,000 taxpayers receive annually:
- CP04 – Combat Zone Status
- CP05A – Refund information request
- CP06 and CP06A – Excellent 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 more notices” in the future.
“This means people can resolve their issues faster, including returning refunds to affected taxpayers faster,” Acting IRS Commissioner Doug O’Donnell said in a statement.
If you receive one of the nine notifications, it will include a link and a unique access token, according to the IRS. You can use any browser to open the link, enter the access code and add personal details before uploading the required documents.
Paper has always been a major 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 faced a backlog of millions in unprocessed returns, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said clearing the backlog was one of the top priorities for IRS funding.
Returns of papers and correspondence have been a major issue, according to national taxpayer attorney Erin Collins, who recently published her annual report to Congress.
“The IRS still relies on age-old manual practices and the human assembly line for its paper-handling operations, and paper is its kryptonite,” she wrote in its 2022 report.