IRS Revises Initial Contact Letters for Ease Of Understanding, IR-2022-170

The IRS has revised its initial contact letters to improve its interactions with taxpayers. The initial contact letters are issued by the IRS, inviting the taxpayer or their representative to a conference, for resolving federal disputes, without litigation. Based on feedback from taxpayers and practitioners, the IRS has made two key revisions. The revised initial contact letter will now contain the following information:

• Taxpayers and representatives can choose how they meet with IRS through conferences that can be held by telephone, video or in-person and can communicate through mail or secure electronic messaging.
• Disputes can be resolved in every type of conference and the type of conference does not impact the final decision.
• Name and phone number of the IRS Appeals Officer’s manager along with Appeals’ Officer contact information will be provided, to ensure an appeal stays on track in the rare instance additional help is needed.

The Service stated that taxpayers and representatives would see the new language providing manager contact information and clarifying conference choice. Taxpayers can submit their comments to AP.Taxpayer.Experience@irs.gov by December 2, 2022.