IRS to Taxpayers Receiving Notices: What, Like Math Is Hard?

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of taxpayers like an unopened letter from the IRS. There’s something about seeing the familiar black and white envelope—typically, only refund checks have color—that makes you feel that something must be wrong.

And increasingly, there’s a reason for it.

Over the past year, the IRS has been slow to process tax returns but has appeared to continue to issue failure-to-file and failure-to-pay notices. That has clogged mailboxes with letters seeking returns that have already been filed or payments that have already cleared.

As those notices frustrate taxpayers, the IRS has ramped up issuing other ...