• uh...oh..friend may have screwed up royally

    From MZB@21:1/5 to All on Mon Apr 4 10:46:14 2022
    A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

    He then sent in his check last week.

    Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

    What happens in such a case?

    What should he do?

    (Would IRS.gov indicate that payment was made?).

    Would they return the check (assuming it was unsigned)? If so, when?

    Any advice for him what to do?

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  • From Rick@21:1/5 to MZB on Mon Apr 4 15:20:00 2022
    "MZB" wrote in message news:t2eu0u$5jm$1@dont-email.me...

    A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

    He then sent in his check last week.

    Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

    What happens in such a case?

    What should he do?

    (Would IRS.gov indicate that payment was made?).

    Would they return the check (assuming it was unsigned)? If so, when?

    Any advice for him what to do?


    It's probably 50-50 if it would get past whoever opens up the envelope for
    IRS. Since the return was already filed, I presume your friend included a payment voucher or at minimum put his SSN on the check. If it makes it into the banking system, you're probably okay. The banks process millions of
    checks every day and the days of clerks looking at signature cards to verify signatures are long gone.

    I would suggest your friend call the bank or go online to see if the check cleared. If it didn't, one option would be to pay a stop payment fee to the bank and just re-issue the check. Yes, he also can and should go on the IRS website to see if they processed the payment, but I don't know if they keep that updated in real-time.

    My experience is that the IRS tends to cash checks fairly quickly, even if
    they are behind on processing the actual return. Your friend probably has enough time between now and April 18th to track down whether the check was processed. If he determines that it was not or goes the stop payment route, suggest he pay electronically rather than by paper check through the mail.

    --

    --
    << ------------------------------------------------------- >>
    << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
    << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
    << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
    << >>
    << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
    << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
    << are at www.asktax.org. >>
    << Copyright (2011) - All rights reserved. >>
    << ------------------------------------------------------- >>

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  • From John Levine@21:1/5 to All on Mon Apr 4 17:27:47 2022
    According to Rick <rick@nospam.com>:
    "MZB" wrote in message news:t2eu0u$5jm$1@dont-email.me...

    A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

    He then sent in his check last week.

    Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

    My suggestion would be to do nothing. The penalty is 0.5% per month,
    in this case about $5. I agree that the most likely outcome is that
    they cash the check, the bank doesn't care, everything is fine.

    If there's no sign of the check by mid-May, he can use EFTPS to pay electronically.



    --
    Regards,
    John Levine, johnl@taugh.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
    Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

    --
    << ------------------------------------------------------- >>
    << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
    << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
    << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
    << >>
    << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
    << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
    << are at www.asktax.org. >>
    << Copyright (2011) - All rights reserved. >>
    << ------------------------------------------------------- >>

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  • From Stan Brown@21:1/5 to John Levine on Tue Apr 5 00:06:34 2022
    On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 17:27:47 EDT, John Levine wrote:

    According to Rick <rick@nospam.com>:
    "MZB" wrote in message news:t2eu0u$5jm$1@dont-email.me...

    A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

    He then sent in his check last week.

    Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

    My suggestion would be to do nothing. The penalty is 0.5% per month,
    in this case about $5. I agree that the most likely outcome is that
    they cash the check, the bank doesn't care, everything is fine.

    I suspect John is right about the most likely outcome. The days when
    every check was scrutinized are long behind us.

    If there's no sign of the check by mid-May, he can use EFTPS to pay electronically.

    But for future reference, I strongly recommend everyone make any
    future payments through the payment screen on the IRS website. It
    takes only a few minutes, it's free, and you have no worries about
    whether the IRS received the money timely.

    IRS Direct Pay is here: <https://www.irs.gov/payments/direct-pay>
    You can make a payment without having an IRS account, but having the
    account frees you from entering the same repetitive information to
    establish your identity every time.

    EFTPS is here: <https://www.eftps.gov/eftps/> I believe there are
    more scheduling options than IRS Direct Pay, but for EFTPS you have
    to enroll before making your first payment.

    --
    Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
    Shikata ga nai...

    --
    << ------------------------------------------------------- >>
    << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
    << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties >>
    << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
    << >>
    << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
    << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy >>
    << are at www.asktax.org. >>
    << Copyright (2011) - All rights reserved. >>
    << ------------------------------------------------------- >>

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