You opened a letter that asks who you are, and the election reply is still missing. A request to prove who you are can show up while an election is still in question. They are different problems, and we do not solve one by amending the other.
Sort identity mailIdentity mail asks a person or a company to confirm that a return, a refund, or an account really belongs to them. The election asks the Service to treat the company as an S corporation. Answering one does not answer the other. Amending Form 1120-S because an identity notice arrived mixes a filing with a verification, and the mix is hard to unwind.
If you are unsure which envelope you opened, read the first paragraph and the form it cites. Bring both if both came. We will label them before we propose a next step. A label is not a response. It is how we avoid sending the election file to an identity unit.
First contact from the Service about a return is normally by mail. A text or an email that pushes a link is the wrong door, even when it mentions a notice number you recognize. Do not follow the link. Look the notice up on the agency's own site, or call the number printed on the paper you already hold.
We will not ask you to forward a suspicious message into our form. Describe the mail in your own words, or read us the notice number from the paper. If you do not have paper, say that. We would rather slow down than chase a link.
Identity mail is one route and the election is another. Taking the wrong route still moves the file, and it still drops the question at the wrong office. A city can run several kinds of transit and still ask you to name the stop before you board. We want that same care with the envelope. Read the first paragraph and the form it cites before you decide which problem you are holding.
Owners who live in other towns get the same sort. The notice goes to the address on the return. The reading can be a video call from the kitchen where you opened the envelope. We do not need you in a particular room to tell the two problems apart. Stay where the mail found you.
Say who the notice is addressed to, the person or the company. Say the tax year. Say whether a refund was held. Say whether you already verified identity in a prior year. Prior verification does not always carry forward, and we will not assume it did.
Then we tell you the next official step in plain words. If the step is something only you can do on the agency site, we say that. We will not click it for you, and we will not stand in at the Service in your place.
Say whether the notice is about you, the company, or a refund, and whether you have the paper or only a message.