Credit from 2016

[Patrick Michael]

Client received a letter from the IRS that they had not filed  for 2016 and there was a credit on account for tax year 2016.  They did file in 2016, so they are not sure what it was all about  They called the IRS and had to credit transferred to tax year 2019. Do I include this amount as a estimated payment or will the IRS just add it onto their refund automatically?

 

Thanks.

[ILLMAS]

Let the client figure it out themselves unless they pay you to get to the bottom of it.

[Max W]

I would want to be sure that the credit was actually appplied to 2019 by getting the Account Transcript for that year.  The reason - 2016 will be closed on Apr 15, and if the credit does not get included in the refund, trying to find out what happened to it may cause the time to slip by Apr 15 and the credit could be lost.

As for the question, I don't think it matters one way or the other.  It is the same as somone filing a return and forgetting the $1000 Est Pmt made.  It will still get credited even if it is not on the return.  If it is on the return and it is too much, like Est Pmts that were never made, the IRS will discount them.

And as Illmas says - Charge for it.

 

[BulldogTom]

1 hour ago, Patrick Michael said:

Client received a letter from the IRS that they had not filed  for 2016 and there was a credit on account for tax year 2016.  They did file in 2016, so they are not sure what it was all about  They called the IRS and had to credit transferred to tax year 2019. Do I include this amount as a estimated payment or will the IRS just add it onto their refund automatically?

 

Thanks.

Did you prepare 2016?   If so, I would contact the IRS with proof of filing.   This could get ugly if the computers are messed up.

If you did not prepare 2016, then it is a customer service issue if you want to get involved.   If it were a client of mine, I would probably take a POA and call to get to the bottom of what is going on, realizing that I am not getting paid for it.   Especially if I thought I could get some positive buzz from the client to his friends about my service.

Tom
Modesto, CA

[Patrick Michael]

Mystery solved.  They were paying for a previous year on installments and the IRS applied one of the payments to 2016 instead of 2015.  The bill has been paid off so IRS is applying to 2019.

Thanks for the responses.