LT41

An LT41 is the unfiled-returns cousin of the LT40: the IRS is trying to obtain missing tax returns (or a shared responsibility payment) and intends to contact others to verify your information. Disclosure to those third parties is legally limited — generally your name and no more than necessary.

“File the missing returns listed, with supporting documents, by the due date on this notice. We may contact third parties to verify your information during the dates shown, and we'll send you a yearly list of anyone we were required to disclose. If you already filed or aren't required to, call and tell us.”

The printed due date governs the filings. Where a refund is involved, filing is also what claims it — and refund claims have their own multi-year limit that runs quietly regardless of IRS letters.

• The notice, which lists the years
• Income documents for those years, or a plan to get IRS wage-and-income transcripts
• Proof of filing for any year already sent
• Facts supporting a not-required-to-file position, if that's the situation

• Rebuilding old years from IRS transcripts when records are gone
• Filing multiple years in the right order and to the right address
• Making the already-filed or not-required case with documentation
• Handling whatever balance conversation follows the filings