The objectives of the mail operation are as follows:

Managers of Remittance Processing Operations have specific responsibilities relating to the security, internal control, issuance, and disposition of Forms 809, in addition to the care that must be given any remittance handling. Forms 809 must be handled with the same care and precision as cash. The following procedures are required when handling Forms 809.

Managers must ensure only appropriate employees have Form 809 books and employees with Form 809 books have only research command codes in their Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) profiles.

A command code is considered "sensitive" if it can be used to adjust account balances, change the status of a tax module or account, or affect the tax liability. Sensitive command code combinations are listed in Exhibit 5 of IRM 10.8.34, Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) Security Handbook. Sensitive command codes are listed in Exhibit 4 of IRM 10.8.34, Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS) Security Handbook.

Managers must ensure employees with responsibility for issuing tax receipts to taxpayers are not assigned to control the Form 809 inventory or to review completed Forms 809.

All mail received in Mail Sorting area requires the received date on the postal container.

Mail forwarded to the sorting area must be controlled using the following procedures:

Mail must be opened in a controlled and restricted area.

Mail cages are delivered to mail team personnel for opening using SCAMPS, slicers, or alternative automated mail opening equipment.

Large mail envelopes and boxes are sorted out. Hand slicers manually slice the mail that cannot be opened by machines. The envelopes received via flats and fats must be sliced on three sides or turned inside out to ensure removal of contents. If suspicious, follow emergency procedures.

All other mail is processed through mail opening equipment.

Mail must be extracted in a controlled and restricted environment.

The individual campus determines the presence of statute. Forward all statute delinquent returns with potential Assessment Statute Expiration Date (ASED) to the Statute function for clearance prior to transshipment. For additional information, see IRM 25.6.1, Statute of Limitations Processes and Procedures .

Do not route returns to Statute Control Unit if any of the following conditions are present:

The individual campus determines what types of mail, i.e. Directors, TIGTA, etc. that cannot be opened by Campus Support. Those functions must extract their own mail within the confines of the mail room.

Mail is extracted and date stamped in red ink. See IRM 3.10.72.9, Date Stamping.

Mail is sorted in the following priority order:

Although certain sorts are mandatory per this IRM, it is the prerogative of any campus to add additional sorts either by enhancing a required sort or by introducing a new sort.

In addition to the normal instructions for extracting envelope contents, the following additional instructions apply if the envelope and contents are classified as undeliverable mail.

If the undeliverable mail piece is any one of the following, destroy the undeliverable mail as classified waste:

If Notice 504,Notice 523,Notice 604, or Notice 623 are received as undeliverable with "Unclaimed" or "Refused" notated on the envelope, do not route to Collections. Destroy the notices in Campus Support.

Staple the envelope to the front of the unfolded contents for any item not covered in (2) or (3) above.

Return Undeliverable, certified/return receipt requested mail to the Campus function that requested it. (DO NOT DETACH FORM 3811 from the mail piece.) Follow the table below:

Sort all undeliverable mail, other than notices, by name or employee number of originator and forward to respective areas.

If undeliverable mail is not to be destroyed, it must always be date stamped in a conspicuous place.

Campus Support transships all undeliverable mail receipts designated for Files to the appropriate Submission Processing Files. See Exhibit 21.1.7-2, Campus Files Address.

OIC is centralized at the Brookhaven and Memphis Compliance Campuses. Taxpayers are instructed to mail their offer to Brookhaven or Memphis. When an OIC Fee payment is received, the payment is sorted into two categories:

Campus Support must release all OIC mail to the Centralized Offer in Compromise (COIC) employee co-located in Campus Support.

When Form 3210, Document Transmittal, is received from COIC, Campus Support:

Insolvency payments or Bankruptcy Trustee checks are sent to the Philadelphia Campus Support for processing. The Chief Financial Office (CFO) established and authorized the use of a "suspense " account for the deposit of these remittances prior to the research and application of the payment to the taxpayers’ accounts. The purpose of this process is to expedite the government's availability of funds for these large dollar payments.

Trustees should mail the insolvency checks to a Post Office Box designated specifically for these checks. The address is:

Trustee payments sent by overnight mail are sent to:

Campus Support takes the following action on CIO mail:

Any return or document received with a check or money order is classified as "With Remittance" .

As soon as all government checks are extracted, Extraction personnel must stamp each check with "Unless for Credit to the United States Treasury this Instrument is Non-Negotiable" . The check must be stamped underneath the "Pay to the order of" .

All payee lines must be overstamped "United States Treasury" at the point of extraction. See IRM 21.1.7.9.4, Overstamping.

All types of remittance are picked up and taken to the Payment preparation area.

See IRM 21.1.7.6.9, Processing Cash and Handling of Currency and Items of Value, for any return, document, or misdirected mail to Internal Revenue with an item of value other than a check or money order.

When a remittance of $1 million or more is discovered, the discoverer must immediately carry it to their manager with the return or document. The check must be handled expeditiously through RS-PCC. If the check cannot be processed through RS-PCC, the manager immediately carries it to the Form 3210 preparation area for shipment to Submission Processing Deposit site.

When a remittance of at least $50,000, but less than $1 million is discovered, it is placed on the top of the work pile and so identified.

The United States Postal Service sorts and delivers mail by PO Box number. Extractors maintain P.O. Box integrity.

Mail received without a P.O. Box is sorted during extracting.

Mail which cannot be identified by extractors is forwarded to the Mail Classification area.

On October 1, 2008, the Rampdown sites began routing Forms 1040X, Amended Returns, without correspondences/notices to Submission Processing for processing. Brookhaven and Memphis routes Forms 1040X to Fresno and Philadelphia routes to Kansas City. On June 29, 2009, Andover began routing Forms 1040X without correspondences/notices to Fresno Submission Processing. The Forms 1040X are routed to Submission Processing with the exception of the following:

Beginning March 9, 2009, if Campus Support receives any response to CP 08, CP 09, CP 27, route the responses to Submission Processing. Brookhaven and Memphis route the responses to Fresno. Philadelphia routes the responses to Kansas City. On June 29, 2009, Andover began routing any response to CP 08, CP 09, and CP 27 to Fresno Submission Processing.

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Mail is sorted using local stop numbers and cross referenced to:

Route mail, per SERP Web Site under Local/Sites/Other at Local Site Document, and at Campus Program Locator Guide.

Initial or Final Candling is the process of looking for documents and/or remittance left inside envelopes after extraction. Envelopes that are not attached to returns or documents are destroyed as classified waste. Each envelope must be subject to initial and final candling prior to destruction and it must take place within the Restricted Area.

Initial candling of envelopes is performed at Sorting/Extracting tables and involves passing individual envelopes over the lighted section of the Extraction Table, slice the envelope on three sides, tear open the envelope, or turn it inside out prior to placing them in a container, which bears the extracting employee's name or number. Follow local procedures for Initial Candling method of slicing and the information required on your tag for your individual bag at your Extraction table. The various methods of Initial Candling are shown below, dependent on the type of envelope:

Each Campus must have procedures in place to validate the Identifying tag of the employee who extracted and initially candled the contents is present in each container prior to it being taken for final candling. Validation must be done by someone other than the person performing the initial candling. If there is no Identifying tag, one must be requested from the employee who candled the contents, and placed in the container so that it is easily viewable by the final candling employees. This procedure applies to all envelopes, including Fats, Flats, Colored, and Opaque.

Final Candling is the last step prior to destruction of the envelope and it is important that every effort is make to extract any remaining items that could be stuck to the envelope glue, or in a corner of the envelope. All items found must be pulled out and notated on the Final Candling Log, Form 13592.

Final candling by a single employee in an unsupervised environment is prohibited. Employees working final candling must be clearly visible by other employees, or the supervisor. Boxes, carts, crates, etc. must not block view of employees performing this work.

Final candling of average size white envelopes is when envelopes are taken to a lighted table (separate from sorting/extraction tables) where the individual envelopes are again passed over a lighted section prior to envelope destruction. The light source must meet the minimum standard of 174.

Envelopes, including those manually extracted, Flats, Fats, Colored or opaque, etc. are subject to initial and final candling prior to destruction. Final candling requires that the slit envelopes be visually examined prior to placing them in a container for disposal. If any content is found, process it as the only item received. If a SCAMPS date is not available, use the envelope postmark date as the received date. See IRM 21.1.7.9.13, Discovered Remittance, if discovered remittance is found. Non-remittance items found during final candling are given to management with extractor information to provide feedback to employee who overlooked item while candling.

Form 13592, Final Candling Log, is the daily log and will be retained for one year. There must always be at least one Log Sheet and an entry for each Day Shift, every work day and the sheets must be kept in date order, separated by a monthly tab. If there is a swing shift or a night shift, they must have their own log sheet and identify the shift on the sheet. If the day shift knows there is not going to be a night shift, or any subsequent shift that will be performing Final Candling, indicate "No Night Shift" at the bottom of the sheet. A current day Log Sheet should be maintained in the Final Candling area. If the sheet is taken to Deposit, and another one inserted as a continuation page for the same shift, indicate continue, date, and shift. The Log is used to record any contents (remit and non-remit) found in an envelope during Final Candling. A designated employee will immediately record the item found on the Log sheet.

If nothing was found during an entire working shift, insert a Form 13592 for that date and shift in the logbook. Indicate the date, initials, and "No Item Found" . To reduce the number of pages in the logbook, but maintain date order, indicate at the bottom of the current workday's sheet when there is a weekend or Holiday and no shifts working. For the weekend, write the two dates (for Monday Holidays, it will be three dates) and the literal(s) "No Weekend Shift" and/or "Holiday" on the sheet for the last workday preceding the weekend or holiday, normally a Friday

If a log entry is made (for Remit, non-Remit, explanation, etc.), then deleted, write an explanation for the correction and draw a corresponding arrow to the deleted line entry. Following the explanation, both the designated employee and Manager must initial and date, indicating acceptance of the explanation/reason for the deletion.

The Manager must review Form 13592, Final Candling Log, and validate that all available information is correctly entered and remittance amount matches the content found. The Manager and employee who found the remit must immediately acknowledge by writing their own individual initials and the current date in the "R & C Initials and Date" column. This must be completed for each shift working in Campus Support.

When bringing items to the Deposit function, make one photocopy of Form 13592, Receipt & Control Final Candling Log. Bring both copies to deposit function with one copy remaining with the remittance. The other copy must be initialed and dated by Deposit and brought back to the final candling function to be maintained in the log book. This transfer of remit(s) to Deposit must be performed as many times in a day as necessary to ensure timely deposit rules are met. At a minimum, it must be done prior to the end of each shift, allowing Deposit enough time to post the transaction.

When Deposit Function is not available, remittance must be stored in a secure location until Deposit is available to sign for remittance. When this situation occurs, notate log to account for any delays in deposit

Candling Equipment Maintenance - (for Management Officials Only)

Attach envelopes to the back left side of returns or documents in a vertical position ensuring postmark is facing outward. When envelope is too long, attach in a horizontal position.

Attach envelopes to correspondence or documents that are missing entity information (taxpayer name/TIN).

Always attach envelopes and stamp received date on the following:

Do not attach envelopes to replies to IRS notices or correspondence, but always stamp received date on the following:

When multiple returns or documents are received in one envelope and each requires an envelope, attach envelope to one and stamp postmark date on the others on the top left side margin with the earliest postmark date shown on the envelope.

When any "Amended Return", "Claim for Refund", or "Request for Abatement" (e.g. Forms 1040X, 1120X, 720X, CT-1X, 941 X series, 1045, 1139, 8379, or 8849) is received:

Take the following actions for any tax returns received in an envelope addressed to IRS which should have been filed with a state or local jurisdiction, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa or any possession/territory of the United States.

With-Remit: When a federal return is received with state mail:

Non-Remit: When a Federal return is received with state mail:

Route all misdirected State mail to them, unless a copy of a State tax return, or other State documents is attached to one of the following. If attached, keep together and route to the appropriate function.

When erroneously mailed/delivered returns to a state agency are received by IRS ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ ≡ , if envelope is addressed to state agency, then date stamp return with IRS received date, and attach envelope. If no envelope is available, date stamp return and consider not timely filed.

Envelopes addressed to IRS that are erroneously delivered by postal service to the state taxing agency, are considered timely if:

When U.S. currency is received in any amount in the Extracting function, it must immediately be taken to the manager.

When any item of value, other than U.S. currency is discovered, See IRM 21.1.7.9.10, Unacceptable Payments. An item of value can be gold, silver, jewelry, savings bonds, postage stamps, Treasury notes/bonds, stocks, etc.

Foreign currency is not acceptable for payment of federal income taxes. When foreign currency is received in the mail, it must be converted to U.S. dollars. Transship foreign currency to Submission Processing.

When postage stamps are received in amounts less than $1, cross through and permanently affix stamps to related return or document and retain in regular work flow.

Preparing payments for processing:

All perfect payments must have all of the following:

A Designated Payment Code (DPC) must be used with input of TCs 640, 670, 680, 690, 694 and 700. Code the DPC as follows:

If no DPC on the source document, and a DPC is necessary, use DPC 00. See Exhibit 21.1.7-4, Designated Payment Code, for additional DPC codes.

The valid secondary transaction codes for RS-PCC are listed below:

Campus Support must access Batch Block Tracking System (BBTS) to obtain a Remittance Processing System Identification (RPSID) number for each batch of work and print Form 1332-BBTS, Block and Selection Record, and Form 9382-BBTS, Batch Transmittal. See Exhibit 21.1.7-11, Generate Remittance Processing System Identification (RPSID) Number, to generate a RPSID number.

Deliver perfect payments with Form 1332-BBTS and Form 9382-BBTS to Remittance Strategy for Paper Check Conversion (RS-PCC) area for processing.

A log book must be maintained with the RPSID ranges. This allows the user to know the next range to print for a category.

This section provides general guidance only for Campus Support with Payment Perfection function.

The Payment Perfection function within the Campus Support performs analysis and research on remittances and returns/documents that require additional preparation prior to depositing money. They ensure all taxpayer information is available to credit taxpayer accounts. Checks for $50,000 and over will be identified as a large check and receive priority handling. When checks of 100 million dollars or more are received, the check must be photocopied and immediately faxed to the deposit support site.

All documents that require additional perfection before depositing the money through Remittance Strategy for Paper Check Conversion (RS-PCC) must be routed to Payment Perfection function for IDRS research.

The following payments cannot be processed through RS-PCC; therefore, they must be transshipped to Submission Processing for processing: