“Call 5 times, get 5 different answers on how to fix it.”
My accountant’s advice was to let him respond once, confirm that his response had been received and then not make any additional attempts to contact the IRS.
He explained that each time you call or write the IRS someone else gets involved and has the opportunity to screw things up, making it that much less likely that anything will ever finally get sorted out.
Guilty until proven innocent.
“My accountant’s advice was to let him respond once, confirm that his response had been received and then not make any additional attempts to contact the IRS.”
VERY BAD ADVICE!
I knew some people who did not owe taxes, had paid them, but somehow the IRS thought they did owe taxes, they had receipts and tried to straighten it out — the IRS actually froze their bank account and took the money out, after ignoring the copies of the canceled checks, that proved they paid. Then it was even harder to straighten it out - eventually they did, but I highly recommend you stay on top of it and follow up and especially if you get any other notices from the IRS.