Congress to the IRS: Show Your Work
Every year, more than a million taxpayers get “math error” notices — delightful letters telling them they’ve messed up a number somewhere on their return.
Here's the problem. Half the time, the taxpayer doesn’t even know what the mistake is. The letter says “you did something wrong,” but it’s difficult for your average taxpayer to understand what, where, or how to fix it.
That confusion has now caught Congress’s attention.
This week, the Senate unanimously passed the IRS Math and Taxpayer Help Act (yes, MATH) to require the IRS to make its correction notices understandable.
Why It Matters
A “math error notice” is not just an FYI. It starts a 60-day clock. If the taxpayer doesn’t respond in time, the IRS’s version of the math becomes law — no Tax Court, no appeal, no discussion. I’ve seen clients lose thousands simply because they didn’t understand what the letter meant or what they needed to do.
Now, Congress is stepping in to force the IRS to communicate like a human being. That small act of clarity could save your clients (and you) a world of headaches.
Four Key Changes That Matter
Let’s break down the four major improvements under the new IRS MATH Act — and why they actually matter in practice.
1. Clear Error Descriptions
Under the new law, the IRS must describe the specific error — not just “adjustment to income tax,” but “Schedule C, line 7: incorrect computation of self-employment tax.”
This level of detail might sound small, but it’s huge for your clients. It means you can pinpoint the problem instantly instead of spending hours decoding bureaucratic gibberish.
2. The Line-Item Roadmap
The notice now has to include the exact line item where the mistake occurred. This is the difference between “something went wrong” and “the IRS believes line 12 was miscalculated.” When you’re trying to help a panicked client, specificity is sanity.
3. Show Your Work (the IRS Edition)
For years, the IRS has demanded taxpayers “show their work.” Now it has to do the same. Each notice must include an itemized computation showing how it arrived at the new number. That’s transparency — and it lets professionals like you catch when the IRS itself is wrong (which happens more often than most people think).
4. A Real Deadline and a Real Way to Respond
Taxpayers now get a clear deadline and an automated system to request abatement or disagreement. No more ambiguous timelines buried in IRS legalese. If your client disagrees, they’ll finally know how to tell the IRS — and when.
The Bigger Picture
Sure, this all sounds like bureaucratic cleanup. But beneath it is something deeper: a recognition that communication failures cause real harm. In 2023 alone, the IRS sent over 1.2 million math error notices, up from 850,000 the year before.
And all this comes as the IRS is stretched thinner than ever, losing nearly 20% of key staff in the last few years. At least your clients will now understand why they received their math error notice and how to defend it.
TL;DR
⏩ The IRS MATH Act forces the IRS to explain its math error notices clearly.
⏩ Taxpayers get a description of the error, The exact line item where it occurred, the IRS’s own math showing how it got there and a clear response deadline and method.
⏩ This helps professionals like you guide clients faster — before small issues spiral into collections.
➥ Contact Attorney Stephen A. Weisberg for a free Tax Debt Analysis.
Contact Me Here: https://www.weisberg.tax/contact-1
Email: sweisberg@wtaxattorney.com
Phone/Text: (248) 971-0885
Address: 300 Galleria Officentre, Suite 402, Southfield, MI 48034
