What exactly is a certified letter from the IRS?

Question

My husband got a certified letter from the IRS. We have to pick it up at the post office tomorrow. Could this be a refund check or something else?

Answer 1

It's not likely a refund - those just come by regular mail, as do first notifications of a problem with a return. If it's certified, probably means trouble. But not picking it up will just make things worse, so pick it up, and deal with whatever the problem is. Ducking the IRS doesn't work.

Answer 2

A certified letter means you are on notice of a serious tax problem.

The odds are if you are receiving a certified letter, you already know this
and what the letter is about.

Let me give you free advice learned from many years of dealing with the IRS.

Never ever deal with an auditor. Their job is to get as much out of you as possible, and the more they get, the faster they get out of the audit
division. The audit division sucks.

Who you want to deal with is the appeals division. The appeals officer has broader authority to settle a tax debt. Now there is a downside of dealing with Appeals. An auditor can only audit the areas they called out in the audit
and can not open other areas. An Appeals officer can review the entire
return.

So if you have a shady return, deal with the audit division. If your return is fairly sound, then deal with the appeals division.

Answer 3

'Certified' is a service of the US Post Office that provides a tracking number and proof of delivery. The IRS does not normally pay the extra fee to mail a return check. It sounds like bad news to me.

Answer 4

it is just that they do not want you to be able to say you did not get it. probably an audit or some bad news. they do not care if you get refund checks or not so that is not likely.