CCA 201042034: IRS may issue a refund without a claim but is not required to do so

Plain-English summary

Chief Counsel Advice considered whether the IRS could issue a refund without a claim under IRC § 6230(d)(5). It concluded that the provision permits the IRS to issue the refund but does not require the IRS to do so when no claim has been filed. The taxpayer can instead file a claim under IRC § 6230(c), which lets the taxpayer compute the refund amount for the IRS to review. For a year involving an assessment and another year involving a related refund, the advice stated that the assessment generally has a one-year period and the refund a two-year period, so the assessment should be made first. Taxpayer-filed refund claims further extend the period for issuing refunds.

Ruling snapshot

• Question: Must the IRS issue a refund without a taxpayer claim under IRC § 6230(d)(5)?
• Outcome: Advice given
• Key authorities: IRC §§ 6230(c) and 6230(d)(5)

Full text (IRS public release)

ID: CCA_2010100114475237 Number: 201042034
Release Date: 10/22/2010
Office: ----------
UILC: 6230.03-01

From: -------------------
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 2:47:56 PM
To: --------------------
Cc: -----------
Subject: RE: --------------------------------------

Section 6230(d)(5) allows us to issue a refund without a claim being filed, but does not require us to issue a refund in the absence of a claim. The taxpayer can get his refund by filing a claim under section 6230(c), which has the advantage of the taxpayer computing the amount of the refund so that we only have to review the computation and issue the refund.

You raise the situation where we have an assessment for one year and a related refund for another year. We generally have one year to make the assessment and two years to issue the refund. So the assessments should be made first in accordance with the Service Center guidelines. If we have the available resources we can them begin processing the refunds, either on our own or by waiting for the section 6230(c) refund claims. Any refund claims filed by taxpayers will further extend the period for issuing refunds. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------