Processing Undelivered Mail

Undelivered mail is any letter, notice or other correspondence sent to an individual or business taxpayer and returned to the IRS with an indication that the individual no longer resides, or the business is no longer located at the address where the mail was sent.

The following sections contain instructions for handling the various kinds of letters returned by the United States Postal Service as undeliverable.

Undeliverable mail is received in Receipt and Control Branch. For the Withholding Compliance program, this mail may include but is not limited to:

WHC Letter

Letter 2800-C

Letter 2801-C

Letter 2802-C

Letter 2804-C

Letter 2805-C

Letter 2808-C

Letter 2809-C

Letter 2810-C

Letter 2811-C

Letter 2812-C

Letter 2813-C

Letter 3042-C

Letter 2645-C

Letter 4074-C

Letter 4243-C

Undelivered mail may contain a "yellow" forwarding label from the United States Postal Service (USPS) or a note indicating the party no longer resides there.

All undelivered Withholding Compliance mail will be batched as undeliverable and reviewed except 2801, 2802, 2811, 2812, 2813 and 3042. If these letters do not have a forwarding address they will be destroyed and not batched. Per IRM 1.4.6 management has responsibility for proper records management.

If a third party (practitioner, new occupant, ex-spouse) provides a new address, DO NOT update Master File. The address must be verified by the taxpayer or Power of Attorney before Master File can be updated.

Undelivered mail will be processed as shown in the table below: