Form 1041 Refund

[Christian]

A client's son died last year. He left a 401-k account with his mother as beneficiary. She died two years before him leaving his dad as sole heir. The father created an estate account into which the 401-k fiduciary deposited the funds minus tax withheld. I prepared a Form 1041 for the father requesting refund of the tax withheld and added the total 401-k account to the father's personal return which meant he paid the tax required. The 1041 was filed in February but no refund has been received from the IRS although the state has refunded their tax withheld. Is this a usual amount of time to pass before the Service refunds this money?

[kcjenkins]

Not especially unusual, but I'd give the help desk a call and ask for help tracing the status of the refund.

[Christian]

Thanks KC. I noted I could find no Where's My Refund for 1041s. What number should I call in regards to this. I rarely do 1041s and cannot recall getting a refund back from any filed as the account balances were fully distributed to heirs with this exception.

[kcjenkins]

Practitioner Priority Service ®

Practitioner Priority Service—Your First Point of Contact

Tax practitioners have long served an important role in our nation's tax collection system as a conduit between taxpayers and the IRS. The Practitioner Priority Service (PPS) is your first point of contact for account-related issues. Our Practitioner Priority Service is a professional support line (1-866-860-4259) staffed by IRS customer service representatives specially trained to handle practitioners' accounts questions. PPS is available to all practitioners with valid third party authorizations, i.e., Forms 2848, 8821 and/or 8655.

PPS service hours are weekdays:

• 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. local time (Alaska and Hawaii follow Pacific time)
• 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. local time for Puerto Rico

Depending on your response to the initial prompt, your call is routed to one of five PPS locations and routing is based on an evaluation of the lowest expected wait time.

• Questions regarding client's individual tax accounts (IMF) are handled by one of three campus sites: Brookhaven, NY; Memphis, TN; and Philadelphia, PA.
• Questions regarding client's business accounts (BMF) are handled by two campus sites: Cincinnati, OH and Ogden, UT.

Services provided by PPS assistors are:

• Locating and applying payments
• Resolving taxpayer account problems on active accounts
• Explaining IRS communications (i.e. notices and letters)
• Providing general procedural guidance and timeframes
• Providing one of the self-help methods to obtain forms and publications
• Providing transcripts of taxpayer accounts
• Provide Forms 1099 and W-2 information
• Securing taxpayer income verification

Issues outside the scope of the PPS employees' authority are transferred or referred to the appropriate IRS functions such as:

• Tax Law questions
• Accounts assigned to Automated Collection Services (ACS) or Automated Under Reporter (AUR)
• Accounts assigned to a Revenue Officer or Revenue Agent

Of the PPS assistor cannot transfer the call, the assistor will provide the caller with the appropriate contact telephone number.

[Christian]

Thanks. I use the Practitioner Priority Service. I'll give them a ring.