Every year the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) helps thousands of taxpayers with tax problems. This success story is only one of many examples of how TAS helps resolve taxpayers’ issues. All personal details are removed to protect the privacy of the taxpayer and to ensure compliance with Internal Revenue Code (IRC) § 6103.

A taxpayer who filed and made payments using the Form CT-2 had them misapplied by the IRS for the past fifteen years. Form CT-2, Employee Representative’s Quarterly Railroad Tax Returns, is used to report railroad retirement taxes imposed on compensation received by employee representatives and is processed on a completely different system than regular tax returns.

The IRS generally processes these returns and separates the payment upon receipt, causing the payments to be misapplied to the taxpayer’s individual tax return account or applied to the wrong quarter. In some instances, the payment is not posted timely. This misapplication often causes the payment to be returned to the taxpayer in error.

An error occurred when a hold was placed on the taxpayer’s individual account, causing his annual individual federal income tax refunds not to be released without the assistance of a TAS case advocate. Even though the taxpayer’s individual tax returns are filed electronically, there were a few years when it took six or more months to receive the refund.

A case advocate familiar with the Form CT-2 payment process worked quickly to release the taxpayer’s individual refunds and have the payments applied correctly. The case advocate took additional steps to rectify the problem for future tax years by having the IRS release the hold placed on the taxpayer’s account.

When working with TAS, each taxpayer is assigned to an advocate who listens to the problem and helps the taxpayer understand what needs to be done to resolve their tax issue. TAS advocates will do everything they can to help taxpayers and work with them every step of the way. Occasionally TAS features stories of taxpayers and advocates who work together to resolve complex tax issues. Read more TAS success stories.

Learn more about whether TAS can help you: Can TAS help me with my tax issue?