Your CP2100: what the IRS will and will not do with it

Which notice you get

Which forms it covers

The B-Notice program reads only nine form types: 1099-B, DIV, G, INT, K, MISC, NEC, OID and PATR (IRM 5.19.3.3(1)). A payer that files 1099-R, 1099-S, 1098 or W-2G will never receive a CP2100 for those returns, and, not by coincidence, those are also the only forms that make a payer eligible for the TIN Matching program. A "missing" TIN, in the manual's definition, is anything that is not exactly nine digits: an eight-digit number, a number with a letter in it, or all the same digit (22-2222222) is "obviously incorrect and is a missing TIN" (IRM 5.19.3.4.1.1(2); IRM 21.3.11.6.2.2).

There is no record that you received it

"There is no indicator on IDRS when the payor is subject to BWH 'B' for TIN-related problems" (IRM 5.19.3.4(6)). Unlike a payee on a C-Notice, who carries a status code on their account, a payer who receives a CP2100 leaves no trace on the IRS's systems. Two consequences. A phone assistor cannot tell you whether you received one, which payees were on it, or how many times a payee has appeared. And the burden of tracking first versus second notices sits entirely with you: "The CP notice does not identify whether it is the first or second notification for a particular account. Therefore, the payor is required under the backup withholding regulations to institute a system to track the status of these accounts" (Exhibit 5.19.3-1, Q1).

You cannot contest it

There is no procedure anywhere in the manual for a payer to dispute a CP2100. Correspondence from a payer "with or without a CP 2100 or CP 2100A is considered to be unsolicited or erroneous correspondence. The payor is not to submit any correspondence" (IRM 5.19.3.5.1.3). Such letters are held 30 days and then destroyed as classified waste. If a copy of a CP2100 arrives attached to other correspondence, the campus replies with Letter 3667-C, a generic explanation of what the notice is. The manual also says the payer "is not required to write or call the campus" to report that a listed account was already corrected; the instruction is to fix your records and move on: "THE PAYOR DOES NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING ELSE" (IRM 5.19.3.5.1(4)).

The reason a listing can be wrong is stated too: "a recent update, a payor error in submission, or an IRS processing error," and "corrections may not be processed at the time the first run is done" (Exhibit 5.19.3-1, Q15). A payee you fixed before the run can appear on the list; you do not send a B-Notice for that account, and you document why.

First or second: the IRS will not tell you

The rules the manual gives its own staff (IRM 5.19.3.5.1(5); Exhibit 5.19.3-1, Q6, Q17, Q18):

• A second notice is one received "within three calendar years" of the first, for the same name/TIN combination and account.
• "Two notices received during the same year count as one notice." A payee on both the spring and fall listings gets one B-Notice.
• A later CP2100 that relates to the same tax year's returns "must be disregarded." No second B-Notice.
• You are "only required to track these accounts for three years after the date he received the B-Notice."

The TSO assistors are told the same thing from the other side: the notice "does not identify" first or second, and Publication 1281 "is your source of information" (IRM 21.3.11.6.2).

The script rules

The manual's timing language is not uniform and should be kept that way: mail within 15 business days; return date on the notice no later than 30 business days; begin withholding no later than "30 days"; stop within 30 calendar days of receiving the W-9 (IRM 5.19.3.5.1.1 to 5.1.2). The deadline calculator applies Publication 1281's business-day reading.

Lost, late and misdirected notices

• Undeliverable CP2100. The IRS looks once for a better address and re-mails the original notice with its original date. "No new address found: Destroy the CP2100/A notice." A CP2100 with a CD is destroyed with no address research at all (IRM 5.19.3.5.1.4). Keep Form 8822-B current; there is no second attempt.
• Recreating a notice. Call the help desk at 866-455-7438 starting two weeks after the mailing date. Paper recreates are worked bi-weekly and mailed within 7 to 10 business days; listings are available for "4 years from original CP 2100/CP 2100A Notice Date" (IRM 5.19.3.5.1.5). TSO's own script says a notice "will not be verified until two weeks after the last dated notice for the tax year in question," and to expect a recreate "within 4 weeks" (IRM 21.3.11.6.2.6).
• Sending it to a new address. Requires Form 8822-B faxed to TSO with the incident number written on top; the phone assistor cannot take a new address (IRM 21.3.11.6.2.6).
• The Access Key EIN. Notices go to "the EIN used to generate the notices," which is the EIN the returns were filed under. If a service bureau or parent company filed under its own EIN, the notice went there, and a search on your EIN finds nothing (IRM 21.3.11.6.2.6). You are entitled to the business name behind the TCC on a notice you did receive (IRM 3.42.9.13.5).
• Representatives. "Form 2848 or Form 8821 must be faxed in for each TIN" and for each notice type (IRM 21.3.11.6.2.6).

Corrections: what the IRS says not to file

Three instructions that answer the most common CP2100 question. "A payer SHOULD NOT file a correction merely to update the payee TIN on Form 1099 unless it is making a change to the dollar amount reported," and "A payer SHOULD NOT send the signed Form W-9 to the IRS" (IRM 5.19.3.5.1.1 Note). The TSO script: "The customer should not submit corrected files to the IRS, they only need to ensure their records are updated for the next filing" (IRM 21.3.11.6.2.2).

The one exception is the April mailing. Under what the manual calls the Spring Pass rule, a notice received in April may require a correction "for the immediate past filing season" if the same error carried into the return you just filed, but "a correction is not required for the tax year of the notice or any year prior" (IRM 21.3.11.6.2.4). Check whether the payee's current-season return repeated the error; if it did, correct that one and only that one.

Questions people ask