We have heard from more clients lately about phone calls they’ve received supposedly from the IRS, and the Ohio Attorney General is reporting the same.  The callers usually make threats like suing you, sending the police to arrest you, deportation, etc.  And they usually want you to send payment immediately in the form of prepaid credit cards, give them your credit card account info, or even bank account numbers to do a direct debit (trust us, IRS already has your bank account numbers).

Calls like this can be very unnerving even when you think they’re fake, but rest assured, they are.  IRS NEVER initiates contact with you by phone*, they always send notices by mail first, and even then rarely call you in person.  They don’t sue you, they don’t arrest you, and they don’t care about deportation.  They certainly don’t accept payment via prepaid credit cards!  They WILL levy funds out of your account if you ignore their legitimate notices (so don’t ever do that!), but they have no need to make any other kinds of threats. (*Recently, we’ve seen IRS sometimes making “courtesy” calls to let you know you’re being audited, but it’s just a heads up that your notice is on its way in the mail, they don’t ask you for any information.)

If you ever receive a call purportedly from the IRS, just hang up.  If they call back, hang up louder if it makes you feel better.  But don’t play their game.

If you ever receive a notice in the mail on the other hand, DO NOT ignore it or put it off.  Send us a copy so we can take a look at what’s going on.  More often than not, the notice is wrong and you won’t owe anything, but we have to deal with it right away.  Whether it’s wrong or not, waiting any length of time will just make it harder (and more expensive) to resolve.