IRS Address Oddity

My parents moved from Pittsburgh to Florida 20 years ago. Dad died last spring down there, and we moved mom (age 85) back to an “independent living” building (here in Pittsburgh) in August 2021.

In February, I prepared my parents income tax return (the final “Married Filing Jointly”) and EFiled, using my own address since I handle my mother’s finances. I live very near mom in Pittsburgh and consider my address to be her permanent address for a few reasons, one of them being it’s not clear how long mom will be at “independent living”. We live in the same municipality so the tax man gets the same pound of flesh no matter if I use my address or hers.

Yesterday, mom received, at her independent living address, estimated Federal tax coupons from the IRS. The coupons were addressed to both she and dad. I am wondering how the IRS got her address?? It’s not really a big deal and doesn’t change anything, but the only thing I can think of is that the IRS computers are somehow liked to the USPS computers for change of address. Nothing was filed with the IRS using mom’s “independent living” address. I’m also guessing that the IRS computers timely enough to recognize, from February EFiling, the move, but perhaps are fast enough to recognize last summer’s USPS mail forwarding order.

Just wondering about the internal workings of the IRS and how they know where we are.

Addendum to just above: I see now that what was received was form 1040-V. My parents joint return did have tax due and I printed a 1040-V via Turbotax and sent a check that’s since been cashed by the IRS. So I guess the IRS computer generated the 1040-V because tax was due and the system didn’t quickly recognize that the tax was paid. That being said, my original question still remains: How did the IRS get my mother’s “independent living” building address when her (joint) tax return had my address?

That being said, my original question still remains: How did the IRS get my mother’s “independent living” building address when her (joint) tax return had my address?

From Social Security ?

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  • Medicare gets address info from Social Security,
  • Medicare gets income info from the IRS (to calculate IRMAA),
    But where the IRS gets address info from, I’m not sure, so this doesn’t answer your question, but FWIW:

For banks, brokerages, and other companies that allow it, I provide Dad’s facility address as his legal address of residence, and my address as his mailing address.
For Social Security, Medicare, pensions, and IRS, I just use his facility address. I do everything online anyway, as far as paying bills, downloading 1099’s, efiling, etc. There are only two exceptions:

  1. Social Security. He’s not capable of setting up his own online account, and the site is very clear that no one else (family, PoA, etc) is allowed to. So his Form SSA-1099 gets mailed to his facility.

  2. Medicare. They get his address from SS (even though I have online access to Dad’s Medicare account, I can’t change his address there). I’m willing to leave this as is, because it streamlines their paying for his medical expenses. When he first went into assisted living, I hadn’t yet done an official (i.e., USPS) change of address, and Medicare would cover the cost of his wheelchair only if I bought it in the town where his house was, which was in the same state but different city/county. Logistically that wouldn’t have been possible, so I just paid out of pocket. Less than $1k, so OK for a one-time expense, but I don’t want to risk confusion for his hospitalization and doctor bills.

The result is that in general things go smoothly, address-wise. I’m on the other side of the country now, so my sister forwards Dad’s mail*, and in Jan/Feb I cross fingers until I receive the SSA-1099**. During lockdowns, when she wasn’t allowed in, the facility forwarded his mail, but that was unreliable.

  • Luckily, Dad doesn’t realize he has a mailbox at the facility, so Sis is able to get to it first, and siphon off financial & medical to forward. Dad has a habit of ripping up and discarding mail indiscriminately, which was a problem when he lived in his house.
    ** If push comes to shove, I could calculate the info from the numbers provided on the prior November’s COL letter. The odds of both mailings getting lost are pretty slim.

Still, there should be a better way. It’s a common enough situation.

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That being said, my original question still remains: How did the IRS get my mother’s “independent living” building address when her (joint) tax return had my address?

They used the USPS National Change of Address database. From the “Revenue Procedure” on “Definition of Last Known Address” on the IRS website https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/rp-10-16.pdf

The Service generally will use the address on the most recently filed and properly processed return as the address of record for all the notices and documents set forth in section 3.01 above. The Service will, however, automatically update a taxpayer’s address of record based on a new address that the taxpayer provides the USPS that is retained in USPS’s National Change of Address database (NCOA database). See Treas. Reg. § 301.6212-2(b)(2). If a taxpayer wishes to change the address of record, the taxpayer must give clear and concise notification as provided by this revenue procedure. The terms “return,” “properly processed,” “address on return,” and “clear and concise notification” are defined in section 5 below.

AJ

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When my mother-in-laws dementia became severe we were changing all of her mail to our address. Social Security refused to allow the address change without bringing her in which she wasn’t realistic or essentially setting up a conservatorship. Social Security would not accept the Power of Attorney, When a change of address was submitted to USPS, Social Security changed her address.

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They used the USPS National Change of Address database. From the “Revenue Procedure” on “Definition of Last Known Address” on the IRS website https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/rp-10-16.pdf

The Service generally will use the address on the most recently filed and properly processed return as the address of record for all the notices and documents set forth in section 3.01 above. The Service will, however, automatically update a taxpayer’s address of record based on a new address that the taxpayer provides the USPS that is retained in USPS’s National Change of Address database (NCOA database). See Treas. Reg. § 301.6212-2(b)(2). If a taxpayer wishes to change the address of record, the taxpayer must give clear and concise notification as provided by this revenue procedure. The terms “return,” “properly processed,” “address on return,” and “clear and concise notification” are defined in section 5 below.

AJ

That explains it! Thank you!

After my father’s death last January, the IRS continued to send mail to his primary residence. I submitted a change of address form with the post office once we had a sale date for his house. I assumed I would need to notify the IRS of his address change, but they changed it in their systems very quickly – one of the few things that happened correctly during Covid.

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