A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

He then sent in his check last week.

Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

What happens in such a case?

What should he do?

(Would IRS.gov indicate that payment was made?).

Would they return the check (assuming it was unsigned)? If so, when?

Any advice for him what to do?

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"MZB" wrote in message news:t2eu0u$5jm$[email protected]...

A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

He then sent in his check last week.

Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

What happens in such a case?

What should he do?

(Would IRS.gov indicate that payment was made?).

Would they return the check (assuming it was unsigned)? If so, when?

Any advice for him what to do?

It's probably 50-50 if it would get past whoever opens up the envelope for
IRS. Since the return was already filed, I presume your friend included a payment voucher or at minimum put his SSN on the check. If it makes it into the banking system, you're probably okay. The banks process millions of
checks every day and the days of clerks looking at signature cards to verify signatures are long gone.

I would suggest your friend call the bank or go online to see if the check cleared. If it didn't, one option would be to pay a stop payment fee to the bank and just re-issue the check. Yes, he also can and should go on the IRS website to see if they processed the payment, but I don't know if they keep that updated in real-time.

My experience is that the IRS tends to cash checks fairly quickly, even if
they are behind on processing the actual return. Your friend probably has enough time between now and April 18th to track down whether the check was processed. If he determines that it was not or goes the stop payment route, suggest he pay electronically rather than by paper check through the mail.

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According to Rick <[email protected]>:

"MZB" wrote in message news:t2eu0u$5jm$[email protected]...

A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

He then sent in his check last week.

Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

My suggestion would be to do nothing. The penalty is 0.5% per month,
in this case about $5. I agree that the most likely outcome is that
they cash the check, the bank doesn't care, everything is fine.

If there's no sign of the check by mid-May, he can use EFTPS to pay electronically.



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Regards,
John Levine, [email protected], Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. https://jl.ly

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<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
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On Mon, 4 Apr 2022 17:27:47 EDT, John Levine wrote:

According to Rick <[email protected]>:

"MZB" wrote in message news:t2eu0u$5jm$[email protected]...

A friend of mine filed his taxes last month, owing about $1000.

He then sent in his check last week.

Now he is worried that he didn't sign it.

My suggestion would be to do nothing. The penalty is 0.5% per month,
in this case about $5. I agree that the most likely outcome is that
they cash the check, the bank doesn't care, everything is fine.

I suspect John is right about the most likely outcome. The days when
every check was scrutinized are long behind us.

If there's no sign of the check by mid-May, he can use EFTPS to pay electronically.

But for future reference, I strongly recommend everyone make any
future payments through the payment screen on the IRS website. It
takes only a few minutes, it's free, and you have no worries about
whether the IRS received the money timely.

IRS Direct Pay is here: <https://www.irs.gov/payments/direct-pay>
You can make a payment without having an IRS account, but having the
account frees you from entering the same repetitive information to
establish your identity every time.

EFTPS is here: <https://www.eftps.gov/eftps/> I believe there are
more scheduling options than IRS Direct Pay, but for EFTPS you have
to enroll before making your first payment.

--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

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<< The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, >>
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<< that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. >>
<< >>
<< The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts >>
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