LT41 Notice: The IRS Plans to Contact Others About Your Unfiled Returns

What LT41 means

The IRS page for this notice says: “We’re trying to obtain your unfiled tax returns and/or your shared responsibility payment (SRP). We intend to contact others to help us verify your information.”

A third party is anyone other than you. The Internal Revenue Manual (IRM), the IRS’s staff rulebook, names banks, employers and neighbors as examples (IRM 5.19.5.14.1). The same section lists LT41 as the advance contact letter for unfiled-return and SRP accounts, and LT40 as the one for accounts with an unpaid balance.

Why the IRS tells you before it contacts others

The law requires it. With narrow exceptions, IRC 7602(c)(1) bars the IRS from contacting anyone other than you about your tax unless the contact falls within a period named in a notice that tells you the IRS intends to make such contacts. LT41 is that notice, and the IRS page says your notice gives the dates the IRS may contact third parties.

IRC 7602(c)(2) adds that the IRS must give you a record of the people it contacted, from time to time and also when you ask. The IRS page says it sends you a contact list once a year if it contacted anyone it must tell you about.

What the IRS may say to those people has limits. The IRS page says it generally tells them limited information, such as your name, and that “The law prevents us from disclosing any more information than is necessary.” The rule behind that sentence is IRC 6103(k)(6), which lets IRS employees disclose return information only to the extent needed to get information not otherwise reasonably available.

What to do before the due date

The IRS page says to read your notice carefully, then file your missing returns, with supporting documents, at the address at the top of the notice by the notice due date. Pay any shared responsibility payment the notice lists.

If you think you already filed, or that you did not have to file, the IRS page says to call the number on your notice. It also points to the IRS “Do I need to file a tax return?” tool to check the filing rules for each year the notice lists, and it warns that you may still need to file even if you expect a refund.

What people mistake LT41 for

Some people read LT41 as a sign the IRS already talked to their employer or neighbors. It does not say that. The IRS page says the IRS intends to contact others, and the notice gives the dates it may do so.

Others worry the IRS will tell those people their tax details. The IRS page says the IRS generally shares only limited information, such as your name.

And some confuse LT41 with LT51. LT51 says the IRS will keep contacting others through the period that notice shows.

For practitioners: what to check first

Check the contact window on the notice. IRC 7602(c)(1) ties every covered third-party contact to the period a notice names, so a contact outside that window is a question to raise with the IRS.

Answer the filing question first. IRM 5.19.5.14.1 sends LT41 on unfiled-return and SRP accounts, so a filed return, or a documented reason none was due, goes straight at the reason the IRS wants to call an employer or a bank.

Ask for the contact record if the client needs it before the yearly list. IRC 7602(c)(2) says the IRS provides the record upon request.

Common Questions