IRS CP80 -- Payment Received With Return, But Duplicate Return Requested

Yes.

I've had clients get the payment refunded, too but the original return to which the payment related has not been processed; sometimes not logged in, and sometimes lost.

Now here is a rare event.  Not only does a taxpayer get through on the phone to IRS -- but he gets the right answer!

Charles Rogers of College Station prides himself on paying his taxes ahead of the deadline, but a recent trip to his mailbox left him worrying about his return. He received a notice stating that the IRS does not have a tax return on file for him and warned that if he didn’t send his return promptly, he would lose credit for the taxes paid in 2020.

“I got a notice in the mail Tuesday from the IRS saying they had not received my 2020 tax forms, and I knew they had received it because they cashed my check,” said Rogers. “The letter acknowledged that I had a credit with the IRS but said, if I didn’t file my forms immediately, they would confiscate my credit basically.”

Instead of doing what the letter from the IRS said, Rogers decided to call to get a better understanding. It’s something that he says he’s glad he did.

“I called and waited on hold for about 40 minutes and finally got in touch with someone,” said Rogers. “They said that the computer has sent the notices out automatically and that the IRS was behind in processing returns and to give them about 16 weeks to get it processed.”

Rogers says the instructions became confusing because that’s not what the letter told him to do. He says the letter made it seem like more forms had to be sent in immediately.

“The lady said, ‘no, don’t do that because you’re going to create an even bigger problem when my original IRS return and my duplicate return both show up in the system that would create a bigger problem for the computer,’” said Rogers. “So she said just wait, and we’ll contact you when we get it straightened out.”

https://www.kbtx.com/2021/12/23/received-confusing-tax-letter-heres-what-experts-say-you-should-do/

Here is an update from the same blog.  I had to laugh about the reference to a lack of enclosure in the letter to IRS from Congress:

"We blogged on January 6 about the IRS practice of sending notices to individuals seeking to get them to file their 2020 return when the IRS had literally taken their check out of the envelope in which these individuals sent to the IRS their 2020 return.  As we discussed in the post, this practice seemed wasteful both to the IRS and to taxpayers.

Yesterday, the IRS announced that it would stop this practice according to an article by Fred Stokeld in today’s Tax Notes edition.  A small but nice step toward better and more efficient administration. 

The Tax Notes article also reports, and includes, that a letter came from almost 200 members of Congress to the Secretary of Treasury yesterday increasing the pressure on the IRS to get rid of the backlog.  Unfortunately, there have been no reports that a check was included with that letter.  We all want to the IRS to fix the backlog and fix lots of other things but Congress needs to do more than send letters.  It would be nice if it also sent some more money, though even that will not provide an immediate fix.

The letter did request that the IRS take a number of specific steps to provide relief while it works its way through the backlog.  Many of those steps would provide meaningful relief:"  (see link)

https://procedurallytaxing.com/irs-announces-stoppage-of-notice-to-paper-filers-who-remitted-payment-and-tax-court-announces-continued-zooming/