You may have noticed that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has not cashed your check or you may have received a failure to pay notice from IRS even though you timely paid their tax due by check.  Unfortunately, if a taxpayer mailed a check, with or without a tax return, it may still be unopened in the backlog of mail the IRS is currently processing due to Covid-19.  What should you do in this situation?

The IRS has updated its website (link below) to note that payments will be posted as of the date IRS received them rather than the date the IRS processed them.  Therefore, once the IRS opens the mail and cashes the check, it will appropriately credit the payment and remove any interest and penalties associated with a timely filed payment.   To avoid penalties and interest, taxpayers should not cancel their checks and should ensure funds continue to be available so the IRS can process them.

The IRS is also providing relief from bad check penalties for dishonored checks the IRS received between March 1 and July 15 due to delays in processing, however, other penalties and interest may apply.

Due to high call volumes, IRS suggests waiting to contact them about any unprocessed paper payments still pending.

For further information, please view it HERE