Be super careful with ERTC claims for farms! My neighbor got bamboozled by one of those ERTC "specialist" companies that promised huge refunds. They filed claims for quarters when his farm actually had INCREASED revenue compared to 2019. Now he's facing an audit and potential penalties. The legitimate quarters for ERTC can be valuable, but filing for quarters you don't qualify for is basically asking for trouble. The IRS has specifically said they're targeting fraudulent ERTC claims. Make sure you have solid documentation showing either the revenue decline OR specific government orders that affected your farm operations.

Just a heads up for anyone filing ERTC for their farm - the actual process is a bit complex. You need to: 1) Determine eligibility for each quarter (either revenue decline OR government shutdown impact) 2) Calculate qualified wages for eligible employees 3) File Form 941-X for each quarter you're amending 4) Include a detailed statement explaining your eligibility reason 5) Keep ALL supporting documentation for at least 4 years For our berry farm, the most tedious part was documenting how the social distancing requirements impacted our U-pick operation. We had to gather all the local health orders and explain how they reduced our capacity.

My wife accidentally put our daughter's maiden name on our taxes last year instead of her married name. The return was accepted and processed without any issues. The tax pro at H&R Block told us that as long as the SSN is correct, minor name issues rarely cause problems. The IRS system primarily matches the SSN with their database. The name matching is secondary and mostly to prevent obvious fraud - they understand that typos happen. If they do find a discrepancy that concerns them, they'll usually send a letter asking for clarification rather than just rejecting the return outright. Your return being accepted is a good sign! I wouldn't worry about filing an amendment unless the IRS specifically requests it.

I'm a little confused. My tax software wouldn't even let me submit when I had a name that didn't match perfectly with what's on the social card. How did your return get accepted with the wrong spelling?

One thing nobody mentioned - if you do agree with the CP2000 adjustment, make sure you check if it affects your state taxes too! I made that mistake and ended up getting a similar notice from my state a few months later. Had to pay additional interest because I didn't amend my state return after resolving the federal issue.

When you respond to the CP2000, make sure you include ALL documentation they ask for, not just some of it. I made that mistake and it dragged my case out for months because they kept requesting additional info. Even if you think a document isn't relevant, if they ask for it, include it!

One important thing nobody's mentioned - S-Corps are required to have minutes of annual meetings, even if your sister is the only shareholder/officer. This is called "maintaining corporate formalities" and it's SUPER important if you want to keep the liability protection an S-Corp provides. If she hasn't been doing bookkeeping, I'm guessing she hasn't been keeping minutes either. When I went through something similar, my lawyer had me create backdated minutes (obviously dated accurately) documenting major business decisions for the past years. It's something she should discuss with both her accountant AND a business attorney. If you don't maintain these corporate formalities, someone could potentially "pierce the corporate veil" in a lawsuit and come after her personal assets. The whole limited liability thing only works if you actually treat the corporation as separate from yourself.

Just a heads up that if your sister has been taking money out of the business without doing proper payroll, the IRS can reclassify ALL distributions as wages subject to employment taxes. I've seen this happen to clients and it can result in massive tax bills with penalties and interest. The S-Corp advantage is ONLY realized when you properly balance reasonable salary (subject to payroll taxes) with distributions (not subject to self-employment tax). If you're not running payroll at all, you're basically just creating a compliance nightmare without any of the tax benefits.

Just FYI, if you already filed your return but haven't paid yet, you can also use IRS Direct Pay (https://www.irs.gov/payments/direct-pay) and select "payment type" as "extension" and "reason" as "4868" to pay what you owe. But as others mentioned, it's not technically filing an extension since you already filed. It's just using that payment channel. I did this last year and it worked fine even though I had already filed. The IRS just applies the payment to your account.

Don't listen to all this complicated advice. Just call the IRS and tell them you need more time to pay. They'll work with you. I've done it 3 years in a row lol.