I'm staying with my mom temporarily while we wrap up our Ike-damaged house. My sister gets lots of debt collection calls and letters here. She's been a waitress for about 10 years, so it was no surprise to me when she got a certified letter today from the IRS. Although I assume it's an audit notification, I'm still curious. Anyone ever get one of these certified letters? Does it mean audit?
I got a certified letter due to a math error my over-paid, under-performing CPA made on my taxes. No audit, I paid what I owed plus a penalty. CPA charged me for his troubles
Make absolutely sure it really is from the IRS. Call them and confirm it. You don't want to fall prey to some scammer.
I got one because I had cashed out a Roth IRA and my stupid CPA didn't attach the cost basis which showed that I had taken a loss on it. This was in 2006 and earlier this year, I got a thing in the mail where they wanted to charge me interest and penalties for withdrawing this and not reporting it. Well, I called the CPA and we responded back to the IRS with more clarification. They still came back saying that they were still investigating and warning me that interest was still accumulating. Finally after another month or so, they sent a letter saying that everything was okay and I didn't owe anything. The point being is to always question them and not assume blindly that you have to do what they say in their letters because their letters will scare the **** out of you.
