The overall mission of the statute program is to:

The guidelines of the Statute program are to:

The Statute Function was established to review statute imminent/expired returns and payments, and to determine the Assessment Statute Expiration Date (ASED) Refund Statute Expiration Date (RSED) and Collection Statute Expiration Date (CSED).

The function also reviews amended returns that reflect an increase in tax, documents that unpost or are rejected for statute imminent or expired periods, and Martinsburg Computing Center (MCC) transcripts that generate from the Accounts Maintenance/Statute Transcript Program.

The Statute Function is the technical operation for identifying, "clearing" , and determining expired periods for assessment or refund/credit, on statute imminent or expired periods for Individual Master File (IMF), Business Master File (BMF) and Individual Retirement Account File (IRAF) accounts. This includes applying credits, and resolving unsettled tax modules and freezes that were not resolved as a result of the initial computer generated transcript and the statute date is within 180 days for transcript processing and 90 days for non-transcript type cases.

Statute employees must direct their primary attention to statute protection (tax assessment before the statute of limitation passes) and not general non statute issues (refund claims or credit). " No other area should be clearing statute cases for processing." The Statute Function must stamp "No Statute Issue (does not meet statute tax assessment criteria)" on all returns, transcripts, etc., which are not statute related. Follow your IRM procedures for processing the return. They must be routed to the responsible function or originator, as applicable.

Either a case history (action) sheet or statute transcript must be used to record the steps taken when resolving statute cases. The steps must be dated, legible, and listed in chronological order. Local management will decide the method used.

Because of the special nature of problems involved with statute, only tax examiners assigned to the Statute Function should use the instructions and techniques provided in this section.

Many statute related issues are complicated ones. The statute examiner must be able to use logic and judgment, when necessary, to resolve the case and/or determine a correct statute expiration date. The statute employee will:

Since Statute Awareness is a vital process to the performance of identifying statute cases in the Internal Revenue operations, each Statute Function must create a Statute Awareness Program to prevent barred assessments and erroneous abatements.

At the beginning of each quarter starting in January, the Statute Function must display messages on bulletin boards, flyers, posters, IDRS, and distribute Statute Circulars with statute periods that will expire within each month for all business operations. Statute imminent dates must be discussed prior to expiration dates in unit meetings, briefing and/or training classes for all business operations.

Each campus Planning and Analysis Staff must submit a quarterly Statute Awareness Program report, to Headquarters by the 15th day of the month following the close of the quarter via memorandum. If the 15th day of the month falls on a Saturday or Sunday, the report is to be sent by express overnight mail on the Friday before the weekend in order to be received timely on Monday, the next business day. The memorandum must be sent to the attention of the Statute IRM author, at the address for the Statute Of Limitation Project Analyst. See IRM 25.6.1.4.3, Statute Of Limitation Project Address for the Project Analyst address. The memorandum must be signed by each Campus Director. If within 3 days of the report due date, you must send the report via next day express mail.

Include the total volume of barred cases and total tax dollar, broken down by tax, penalty, interest and lost revenue. Also, list the type of case/condition causing the barred assessment. This information can be obtained from Form 9355, Barred Statute Report prepared on barred cases. See IRM 25.6.1.13.2.4 , Identifying Barred Cases for the criteria for barred cases.

Do not submit attachments such as copies of minutes from meetings, local memoranda for statute preparedness, statute imminent bulletins, monthly statute alert posters, or copies of any public address announcements. These should be kept for your records.

The proposed assessments in the Underreporter Program (URP), Combined Annual Wage Reporting (CAWR) and Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) programs provide additional statute consideration.

Each functional area must ensure an adequate number of "Statute Specialists" are assigned to each operation.

Each campus Operation will establish a review of Form 3893, Re-Entry Document Control, or other document input with a different DLN, for all returns that have tax periods with assessment expiration dates of 6 months or less. This is to ensure returns are not being input to a statute imminent period or abated prior to the posting to the correct account, and are being routed to the Statute Function.

Document 7368, Basic Guide for Processing Statute Cases, is available to Customer Service Field Operations, field offices and IRS campuses. The document can be ordered from the distribution center servicing your area under Catalog Number 10296C.

Mail all Statute Awareness Program Reports for the Statute of Limitations Project Analyst to the following address:

To ensure accuracy of adjustments that are completed within the Statute Function, management must:

Management may delegate this review, but in no case may an employee conduct reviews of his/her own cases.

First line supervisors of personnel working statute cases will conduct periodic reviews of cases assigned to the employees. The purpose of the review process is to ensure that employees are processing cases properly and in a timely manner. Additional IDRS training, research guidance, or counseling may be warranted if deficiencies are noted.

Management supervision includes, but is not limited to, product quality review of suspense files to ensure:

Taxpayer correspondence is usually initiated by the taxpayer.

Internally generated correspondence is usually IRS initiated (i.e., transcripts, notice of adjustment).

Follow guidelines for working taxpayer correspondence provided in IRM 21.3.3, Incoming and Outgoing Correspondence/Letters.

Reply to correspondence, including claims with correspondence where the statute period is open, within 30 calendar days of the initial IRS received date (counting the day it is received). If it is not possible to conform with this time limitation, you must issue an interim letter within 30 calendar days of the IRS received date (counting the day it is received). Interims must contain the reason for the delay and a new response date.

Examples of taxpayer or tax practitioner correspondence are:

Examples that are not taxpayer or Tax Practitioner correspondence are:

Any case forwarded to the statute unit to "clear" should have an interim reply before being transmitted. If not, the statute unit will generate the interim reply. The Statute Function Manager must advise operation if a significant increase of interim responses are not sent.

Interim replies must indicate why the response is being delayed and when final action can be expected. Replies should include the employee control number and an explanation that if the taxpayer needs to contact the IRS, to return a copy of the letter, with his/her telephone number and best time to call, as indicated in (12) below.

The Statute Function will answer all correspondence received from taxpayers; the answer must indicate: "This is in reply to your correspondence of (enter the correspondence date)" , and explain the action taken, even if the action taken was exactly what the taxpayer requested. However, DO NOT CORRESPOND to the taxpayer indicating we have received the requested information. Correspondence is only required to obtain information and to explain how the account was corrected.

The Statute Function is responsible for corresponding for any documentation that is necessary in the resolution of all freeze conditions or potential statute problem cases.

A follow-up request to a taxpayer may be required for additional information if the case file indicates "no reply " to previous correspondence from another source within the service campus (e.g., verify address for a later address than the address shown on the entity data). See IRM 25.6.1.6.2, Identifying Undeliverable Mail, for additional information.

Inform the taxpayer a response is needed within 30 days when requesting additional information on all correspondence. Advise taxpayer of the action the IRS will take if a timely response is not received. Also, include a statement asking the taxpayer for a phone number along with the response "When you reply, please send us your telephone number and the most convenient time for us to call so we may contact you if we need more information." All correspondence should be purged 15 days after the date provided in the letter to the taxpayer.

Use a C or pattern letter to correspond with taxpayers. If a CNOTE or QUICKNOTE is used, be sure it clearly communicates the message in simple language.

Notify the taxpayer of processing delay error(s) if a taxpayer caused or will cause a processing delay. Do this only if the other function did not correspond with the taxpayer.

Check the Centralized Authorization File (CAF) prior to sending any correspondence to a third party to ensure a valid power of attorney is on file.

Follow-up telephone calls with a letter as needed to confirm the conversation with the taxpayer (e.g., to obtain the taxpayers signature).

Control all correspondence via IDRS if you are unable to respond to taxpayers within 14 days.

IRM 21.3.3, Incoming and Outgoing Correspondence/Letter, should be available to all employees.

Refer to IRM 3.0.273, "Administrative Reference Guide," for additional information on taxpayer correspondence.

Use CC INOLE to research IDRS for another address on statute generated correspondence. If one is available, reissue the letter. The Form 3552, Prompt Assessment Billing Assembly should not be destroyed. It should be associated with the assessed file case or document, per IRM 3.13.62, Media Transport & Control.

If you have a return, check attached schedules or documents for an updated address. If it is more recent, add the updated information and determine whether you should reissue the correspondence and add the updated information.

If a disallowance letter is undeliverable, resend the entire letter unchanged to the new address in another envelope, and do not issue a new letter. Do not issue a new letter because the taxpayer has two years from the date of the original disallowance letter to appeal the service decision to disallow a claim for credit or refund.

The period of limitation under IRC Section 6511 applies if the taxpayer claims that he or she paid too much underpayment interest (under IRC section 6601). Generally, the time for filing a claim for credit or refund of incorrectly computed interest paid on an underpayment of taxes is two years from the date of payment of tax for the tax period at issue or three years from the date the return is required to be filed (determined without regard to extensions). The amount to be credited or refunded under the two and three year rule is limited to the amount of tax paid within the two years or three years (plus the period of any extension), respectively, preceding the filing of the claim. For the purposes of IRC section 6511, payments of penalties and interest are treated as payment of tax.

A claim for abatement of paid underpayment interest (under IRC section 6601) must be filed within the statutory period under IRC Section 6511. A claim for abatement of unpaid underpayment interest is not subject to the statutory period under IRC Section 6511.

A taxpayer must file suit for the payment of additional overpayment interest (under IRC section 6611) within six years of the date on which the overpayment was scheduled. See 28 U.S.C. § 2401(a) (district courts) and 28 U.S.C. § 2501 (U.S. Court of Federal Claims).

Refer to IRM 20.2, Interest, for additional information on interest computation dates.

The Statutory Period of Limitations Chart below shows the due date of the various tax returns (under section 6501 of Internal Revenue Code of 1986). The information is displayed by the Form Number, MFT Code, Type of Tax return, Period Covered, Due Date and Statutory Period of Limitations.