August 24, 2020: According to a recent announcement, the Internal Revenue Service will be stopping Past Due Notices to taxpayers until the backlog of unopened mail, due to the pandemic, (including unopened checks) has been reduced.

The following notices will be suspended:

• CP501 (balance due)
• CP503 (unpaid balance with no response to the IRS)
• CP504 (unpaid balance, IRS intends to levy)

According to the IRS statement issued, “The IRS reminds taxpayers in this situation they should not cancel their checks and should ensure funds continue to be available so the IRS can process them to avoid potential penalties and interest. To provide fair and equitable treatment, the IRS is also providing relief from bad check penalties for dishonored checks the agency received between March 1 and July 15 due to delays in this IRS processing.”

Any checks received by the IRS will be posted and credited on the date the IRS received them and not the date they were opened/processed. This means you should not cancel your original check because in all likelihood it has not gone missing and will still be cashed.

More information regarding IRS’s progress on mission critical functions during COVID-19 can be obtained here.

This is a developing story and we will continue to provide you with updates as we can. If you have any questions, please contact us today!