This IRM 5.19.16 Compliance Services Collection Operations (CSCO) Clerical Procedures, provides situations that employees may encounter, and how to resolve them.

The authorities for this IRM include:

Per Policy Statement 5-1, Enforcement is a necessary component of a voluntary assessment system, located at IRM 1.2.1.6.1: A tax system based on voluntary assessment would not be viable without enforcement programs to ensure compliance. The IRS is committed to educating and assisting taxpayers who make a good faith effort to comply. However, enforcement action should be taken promptly, in accordance with Internal Revenue Manual guidelines, against taxpayers who have not shown a good faith effort to comply. Promotion of long-term voluntary compliance is a basic goal of the IRS, and in reaching this goal, the IRS will be cognizant not only of taxpayers’ obligations under our system of taxation but also of their rights.

Per Policy Statement 5-2, Collecting Principles, located at IRM 1.2.1.6.2 : We will actively assist taxpayers who try to comply with the law, and work to continually improve the quality of our systems and service to meet the needs of our customers. All taxpayers, whether delinquent or fully compliant, are entitled to prompt and professional service whenever they deal with IRS employees. The public as a whole is our customer, not just delinquent taxpayers. Our customers expect us to promote voluntary compliance by ensuring that all promptly pay their fair share.

The IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 (IRS RRA 98), Section 3705(a), provides identification requirements for all IRS employees working tax related matters.

The Director, Collection Inventory Delivery & Selection (CIDS), is responsible for formulating short and long-range program policies and procedures related to nonfiler programs.

The operations and department managers are responsible for overseeing department, team, and employee responses to taxpayers.

The team manager is responsible for overseeing team and employee responses to taxpayer inquiries. They oversee employee actions of Compliance Services Collection Operations (CSCO) clerical staff.

Program Reports: The following daily and weekly reports are generated by management, and can assist with evaluating the performance of the clerical program:

Program Effectiveness: The program results are housed on the Collection Program and Campus Reports SharePoint site in the Monthly Monitoring Report (MMR). The MMR captures NQRS results to show monthly and cumulative stats. Evaluative (EQRS) and national (NQRS) quality reviews and consistency reviews are routinely conducted, along with Headquarters reviews to ensure case actions are timely and in accordance with the procedures in this IRM.

Taxpayer inquiries are researched through IDRS or other related systems, loaded to AMS, and then distributed to tax examiners. AMS tracks employee actions and is monitored by operation, department, and frontline managers along with Collection HQ employees.

For a comprehensive listing of IRS acronyms, please refer to the Acronym database found at :Acronyms.

Below is a list of commonly used acronyms and definitions found in this IRM.

While many topics are touched upon in this chapter, comprehensive guidance about all of them cannot always be included here. As you use this chapter, remain alert for references to other resources, such as related IRMs and websites. Access that guidance as needed to ensure a thorough understanding of topics.

The IRS adopted the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TBOR) in June 2014. Employees are responsible for being familiar with and acting in accordance with taxpayer rights. See IRC 7803(a)(3), Execution of Duties in Accord with Taxpayer Rights. For additional information about the TBOR, ,see Publication 5170, Taxpayer Bill of Rights and TBOR link.

All Undeliverable mail that is received will be sorted and separated per IRM 5.19.16.3.2, Undelivered (UD) Mail Procedures under OFP 790-61000 with no count.

Undeliverable mail and 2797 responses should be worked in the receiving site and should not be transshipped.

It is important that all undelivered mail is worked as a priority to ensure that the taxpayer’s mailing address is current address. This action reduces undelivered mail receipts, postage cost, and provides data that can be utilized for additional research.

The following program codes and procedures must be reported under specified program code as described in the table below

This subsection provides general procedures for processing UD mail for CSCO and ACS letters and notices that are not processed through the ADR system. If the procedures below cannot be worked by the ADR employees, then the work is performed in other areas in the CSCO and ACS Support functions. In addition, specific procedures for ACS letters UD mail not processed through ADR should be worked using IRM 5.19.6.17.1, Non-Scanned UD Mail (ACS Input).

Separate and work all UD mail in groups as follows:

Incarcerated mail, these include Return Delinquency and Balance Due notices, process as follows:

For Deceased mail, these include Return Delinquency and Balance Due notices, process as follows:

Return delinquency notices indicating OUT OF BUSINESS (OOB) modules with and without dates will be processed as shown below. After the appropriate action is taken, destroy the UD mail as classified waste (CW).

For Power of Attorney process as follows:

This subsection provides procedures for Bad Address processing for those letters or notices that are not processed through ADR processing, see IRM 5.19.16.3.4, Address Research (ADR) Processing. Bad Address means the address lines are not compliant with the standards of the United States Postal Service (USPS) and may or may not be delivered to the taxpayer. These bad addresses may contain IRS campus addresses, for unique campus zip codes, see IRM 3.10.72.2.3, Unique Campus Zip Codes, or incomplete or no address lines. The USPS standards are in Publication 28 and can be found on web site: www.usps.com/publications/pubs/welcome.htm

If the Bad Address mail is received and is not one of the listed letters or notices to be processed through ADR per IRM 5.19.16.3.2, Undelivered (UD) Mail Procedures, do the following:

This subsection provides procedures for the employees processing UD mail through ADR processing. UD mail processed through ADR must contain a barcode. After the UD mail is scanned into ADR, the notice or letter can be destroyed. The list of letters and notices, including Spanish versions, scanned through ADR are as follows:

Process 2797-CG responses as follows:

ADR will conduct address research of the Corporate Files On-line (CFOL), IRMF, and an outside vendor on IMF and BMF accounts. Once the notice (case) is scanned or input on the ADR system, the time line may be as follows:

For ACS LT letters (excluding LT-11), when ADR completes research, normally 60 days, the results will systemically be entered onto the comments field of ACS with the source of the new address found. This depends on the number of sources researched, the number of 2797CG letters issued and the receipt of the responses. The comments shown on ACS will appear as follows:

For technical support and password related issues, send an e-mail to the ADR customer support mailbox: *SBSE ADR Online.

All incoming returns should go through a first read screening process prior to batching.

Scan the IMF Notices and Returns for the following:

If any of the above conditions are present, batch and follow normal processing procedures.

If none of the conditions are present, check for the required signature(s):

Follow procedures below:

When work is received, take the following actions:

When work is received, take the following action:

Sort the mail in separate piles prior to batching. The seven separate piles are:

BMF Notices & Correspondence: Date stamp with the current CSCO date. Proceed to step 5 below.

BMF Returns: Exclude BMF returns from batching and route to Submission Processing per the guidance below:

Refer to IRM 5.19.16.5.2, Fast Scan Screening, prior to batching. Take appropriate actions per the Fast Scan process, if applicable.

Batching: Employees are to take a count for each module. For CP 259 notices and returns, take a count for each received. For CP 518 and correspondence, take a count for each module on the notice.

Missing EIN/TIN cases should be researched to locate the information on IDRS or appropriate tool prior to batching.

Cases must be batched and entered into AMS within 5 business days of receipt in the operation. See IRM 5.19.16.6.2.,Accounts Management Services (AMS) Create Batch.

As a scanner, you will review incoming correspondence. You may need to research and/or input information using the Mail route Guide, IDRS or AMS to identify:

The following is a list and description of tools that can be used to assist in the fast scan process:

Address changes are input when the change is part of normal case processing or an address change is annotated on a Collection notice.

Appeals cases should be pulled prior to being batched, but if an Appeals case was batched in as a 61150, take the following actions:

If the taxpayers request is dealing with a Balance Due issue, Batch as 61150.

Bankruptcy

Taxpayer states they cannot pay full amount, unemployed, on welfare, etc., batch as 61150.

Death Certificate is attached to a notice or the taxpayer has a balance due, batch as 61150

Issue is dealing with Direct Deposit issues, batch as 61125.

If the case is dealing with an IRS employee:

Forms:

Hardship/Disaster requests should be batched as 61150.

Refer to IRM 5.19.21, Campus Procedures for Handling Identity Theft, when Identity Theft (IDT) correspondence is received.

If response indicates Innocent Spouse or has a Form 8857 attached, then take the following action:

Interest and Penalty abatement requests:

Name Change requests should be done through AMS or CC ENREQ.

Offer In Compromise (OIC) cases:

When an open control base is present:

Payment issues:

Power of Attorney (POA)issues:

Frivolous responses follow IRM 21.5.3.4.16.7, Identifying Frivolous Returns/Correspondence and Responding to Frivolous Arguments .

Spanish Correspondence should be worked according to local procedures.

No SSN/EIN, use available tools to try and locate missing information.

Status 22 accounts:

Will pay statement, completed Form 9465 or a statement requesting a monthly payment request, Batch as 61120.

Won't pay statements batch as 61150.

Outgoing Correspondence should follow requirements in IRM 5.19.1.2.5, Balance Due Outgoing Correspondence Guidelines

Sort one box of work at a time.

All inventories worked through AMS will be batched and entered within 5 business days of receipt in the operation.

Cases should be batched:

Batch cases in colored folders or Batch slips depending on local procedures. For an example of color folder batching, see Exhibit 5.19.16-1, TDA Batch Color Coding

Take the following action for Identity Theft (IDT) and Return Preparer Misconduct cases.

Take the following action in sorting Forms for batch creation on AMS:

Take the following action for batching Correspondence.

With Pencil, notate on the upper right-hand side of the color-coded folders the earliest IRS received date, the CSCO received date, the number of cases in the folder and the document type. This will assist the employee who will create batch on AMS.

Correspondence can be screened per IRM 5.19.16.5 prior to batching or during AMS create batch. Report time and volume under 61110.

Once cases have been batched and they are ready for AMS create batch, put on the cart in oldest IRS received date order.

Accounts Management Services (AMS) is used to assign batches of work to the appropriate employees. AMS can automatically determine how the employee will receive work based on their AMS profile.

You must sign on IDRS first before accessing AMS.

Take the following action to create a batch on AMS.

Place Completed batch(es) in designated area for distribution.