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IRS to Reopen Income Verification Service Fax Lines for 24 Hours

Posted on May 18, 2020

The IRS will reopen the fax lines for its income verification express service (IVES) for 24 hours starting May 18.

“We’ve worked on a process that will allow some staff to work remotely to supplement the limited personnel at the service centers,” the tax agency’s IVES team said in a May 15 email to program participants. “However, we need to test this process,” it said.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig’s March 25 order suspending many IRS services included a temporary halt on new IVES requests. The IVES system provides expedited tax and financial information used by lenders to qualify borrowers.

The 24-hour reopening comes just days after the IRS announced that the practitioner priority service and e-service desk hotlines had reopened.

The IVES team said it will accept 10 percent of new work from each participant beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on May 18.

“We want to remind you that we still have limited staffing, so processing time will be delayed,” the IRS said.

The agency said it will follow up with participants who experience issues with the IVES system during the testing period.

IVES participants must use one of four assigned fax numbers to access the system, according to the email.

The IRS also said it will mail IVES invoices the week of May 18 for requests made in March. Payments are due June 18.

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