Travis H. Long, CPA, Inc. Blog

Originally published in the Cedar Street Times

December 11, 2015

If you are like most people, whenever you change addresses you will almost certainly notify the United States Post Office so they can forward any mail that is still being delivered to the old address.  Although you may have notified people and businesses prior to and just after your move, you will inevitably have those that are off your mental radar, and do not get notified.

Since people generally only file their taxes once a year, and it is sometimes an experience they want to forget (although never in my office, I am sure!), the IRS and any state taxing authorities often end up in the off-the-mental-radar list!

The fact that the USPS will forward your mail for up to a year after your move does assuage the need to update the taxing authorities since filing a new return with an updated address will also effect the same change.  Plus it seems the IRS and FTB (here in California) have an uncanny ability to track you down anyway, if you owe them money!

All of this said, you may not want to risk your private tax information and Social Security number  being delivered to the new people in your old house by mistake.  Not to mention, you may have action items that require attention within 30 days of the letter date.  Mail forwarding can sometimes take a good chunk of that time, or maybe it never makes it to you if accidentally delivered to the old address.

So what are your options?  Well, you could call the taxing authorities, but be prepared to wait.  These days I tell clients to find a time where they can put the phone on speaker, make some popcorn and watch a movie while they wait.

This is a sidebar discussion – but here is the reason for the long wait times…the IRS is considered a discretionary program in the US budget and it is funded by annual appropriations by Congress.  The IRS budget has been cut by about $1.2 billion in total over the course of the past five years (approximately 10 percent) according to the GAO.

You may recall the IRS revealed in 2013 that its nonprofit audit department had been targeting certain political groups.  Well, that did not help!  This caused an uproar and Congress has been unwilling to increase the IRS budget.  In fact it decreased it further since 2013.  By examining the disproportionately large declines in taxpayer services according to statistics at the IRS, in relation to their ten percent budget cut, it is speculated that the IRS reaction to Congress has been to focus its internal funding cuts on taxpayer services (think phone support, etc.) in order to gain sympathy in the public eye for more funding.  So taxpayers are caught in the middle of political chess.

Whenever I speak with the IRS representatives, I always try to be as courteous and supportive as possible while trying to get the information needed.  Although you may be frustrated with such a long wait, it is not the fault of the representatives answering the phone, and they are probably feeling pressure and get tired of talking to upset people all day.  Courtesy can go a long way sometimes.

Anyway, back to address changes – the easiest way is to mail a Form 8822 Change of Address to the IRS (FTB Form 3533 for California). The Form 8822 is a simple one-page form which you can download off the internet.  You essentially list your name and Social Security number, your old address, and your new address.  You sign and date it, and mail it in.  California FTB Form 3533 is pretty much the same except they manage to stretch it into two pages in order to cover business entities as well.

If you have questions about other schedules or forms in your tax returns, prior articles in our Back to Basics series on personal tax returns are republished on my website at www.tlongcpa.com/blog .

Travis H. Long, CPA, Inc. is located at 706-B Forest Avenue, PG, 93950 and focuses on trust, estate, individual, and business taxation. He can be reached at 831-333-1041.