The IRS has taken its new funding and set its sites on high-income filers. During the last week of February 2024, the agency sent out letters related to 125,000 cases of unfiled returns from high-income earners. The unfiled returns date back to 2017, and information received from third parties indicates that these taxpayers have over $100 billion in unreported income. 

In January 2024, the IRS plans to start sending notices about unpaid taxes from 2020 and 2021. The agency stopped sending most automated collection letters during the COVID pandemic and through 2023. If you have unpaid taxes from 2020 or 2021, you may have thought that the IRS forgot about the bill. That is not the case, and collection actions are resuming. 

For decades IRS revenue officers paid unannounced visits to taxpayers' homes and businesses to talk about unfiled returns and unpaid taxes, but this is no longer happening. As of July 24, 2023, the agency has stopped this practice. Now, if an officer wants to meet you in person, they will send a 725-B appointment letter to request a meeting.

Do you have unfiled tax returns from 2019 or 2020? Right now, the IRS is letting taxpayers catch up without interest or penalties. This is an extremely rare opportunity, and it gives taxpayers the chance to save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in penalties and interest. But you need to act fast — you only have until September 30 to take advantage of this program. 

For the second year in a row, there was a dramatic drop in IRS liens and levies. In Fiscal Year 2020, the IRS filed 291,081 liens, and the agency sent out 396,269 notices of levies requested from third parties. The following year, in FY 2021, liens dropped to 212,251 and levies dropped to 305,610.