After my federal return is accepted can the IRS reject it later?

The term "accepted" just means the IRS has received your return and it passed their initial checks for things like valid SSNs and math calculations. It doesn't mean they've fully reviewed your return or approved everything on it. The IRS can absolutely still audit your return later, even years after acceptance. They generally have 3 years from the filing date to examine your return and assess additional taxes, but this can extend to 6 years if you omitted more than 25% of your income. For your situation with unreported income, you might want to consider filing an amended return (Form 1040-X) to report the additional income. Being proactive is usually better than waiting for the IRS to discover the discrepancy, especially since they likely received information about your income from the payer.

I was in almost the same situation last year with some forgotten income. I was freaking out about potential audits and penalties when I discovered taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai). It actually helped me figure out exactly what I needed to do with my forgotten income situation. Their system analyzed my tax documents and flagged the discrepancy between what I reported and what the IRS likely had on file from payment processors. The step-by-step guidance for filing an amended return saved me hours of research and worry. It even estimated what I'd owe including potential penalties.

Following up on my question about taxr.ai - I ended up trying it for my situation with unreported contractor income. Honestly surprised at how helpful it was! The document analysis caught several issues I had no idea about, including a mismatch between what I reported and what my payment processor had likely reported to the IRS. The amended return guidance was actually specific to my situation, not just generic advice. Saved me from what definitely would have been an audit headache later. Just filed my amendment and feeling much more confident now!

If you're having trouble figuring out whether to amend or not, you should really try calling the IRS directly. I know it sounds terrible - I tried for TWO WEEKS to get through last year, constantly getting disconnected or waiting for hours. Then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me talking to an actual IRS agent in under 45 minutes. They have a demo video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent I spoke with explained exactly what I needed to do about my missing income and even helped me understand how the penalties would be calculated. Much better than stressing about what *might* happen. They walked me through the whole amendment process right there on the call.

Ok I'm coming back to eat my words about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment I figured I'd try it since I've been trying to get clarification on an amended return for WEEKS. Got connected to an IRS agent in about 30 minutes yesterday! The agent actually gave me specifics about my case and confirmed my amendment was received but not yet processed. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't experienced it myself. Honestly thought these "get through to the IRS" services were scams, but this actually delivered. Saved me hours of frustration and now I at least know what's happening with my return instead of being in limbo.

Small correction to what some people are saying here - an "accepted" return means the IRS has accepted it for processing, but they can definitely still reject it later if they find issues. I've had returns initially accept and then get rejected days later. What often happens is your return passes the basic validation (SSN matches, math adds up, etc.) so it gets "accepted" but then fails a deeper validation when they match it against other records they have. For example, if your W-2 info doesn't match what your employer reported.

Has anyone else gotten a CP2000 notice before? I had a similar situation last year where I forgot to report some income. Return was accepted no problem, then 8 months later I got a CP2000 notice saying they found a discrepancy between what I reported and what was reported to them. They automatically calculated the additional tax I owed plus interest.

Just to add some perspective - your $750 in unreported income probably won't trigger a major issue, but it's definitely worth addressing proactively. The IRS gets copies of payment records from apps like Venmo, PayPal, Square, etc., so if any of those cash payments went through digital platforms, they likely already have that information. Even if it was all truly cash with no paper trail, filing an amended return shows good faith effort to comply. The additional tax on $750 of self-employment income would probably be around $100-150 depending on your tax bracket, plus maybe some interest. Much better to handle it yourself than wait and potentially face accuracy penalties later. I'd recommend keeping better records going forward - even a simple spreadsheet or phone notes can help track cash payments as they happen. Makes tax time so much less stressful!