Discussion:Anybody else getting funky IRS correction notices?

The notices state they have corrected the return because of an error, tell you what they changed, but don't tell you what the error was or why they changed it. These have been either CP11 or CP12 Notices.

On the first notice, the wife had a Schedule C with income, the husband had small W-2 and a Schedule F with a loss. Netted together, they qualified for the EIC. The IRS notice disallowed the Schedule F loss, which killed the EIC.

On the second notice, the husband had both a Schedule C and Schedule F. Both showed small losses. We elected the optional SE method for the Schedule F, but not the Schedule C. So you ended up with Schedule C loss of $2,058, Schedule F income of $4,200, which nets to SE taxable income of $2,142. The IRS notice took the Schedule C loss times .9235 and added it to the optional $4,200 Schedule F income (2058) x .9235 = (1901)+4200=2299. This isn't what the instructions on Schedule SE part B says to do.

I guess what is frustrating is that the notices tell you what they changed, but not why they changed it. Both times, I've had to back into the adjustment to figure out what they are doing. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with the IRS on the first notice and got transferred 3 times and they still couldn't give me a good answer. I figured it out myself.

Just curious if anybody else is running into this.