New System Cuts Time Spent on IRS Notices

Canopy, a provider of cloud-based practice efficiency platforms for tax and accounting professionals, has unveiled its Notices solution , giving practitioners a streamlined option for efficiently managing and resolving IRS and state notices for their clients.

More than 200 million IRS notices were sent to taxpayers last year. With more than 150 different types of penalties, managing and understanding each one can be exhausting and costly. Because IRS funding has declined by $2.4B since 2010, cheaper, automated collections continue to have greater prominence in enforcing compliance on a large scale, meaning that even more notices will be sent out in the coming years.

Due to the complexity and time-consuming nature of IRS notices, they can pose a significant challenge for tax practitioners.

“The IRS can cover more ground sending millions of notices than they can by doing traditional audits,” said Nate Barrett, Vice President of Product and Design at Canopy. “Now, the average accounting firm is dealing with upwards of 100 notices per year. IRS notices are a huge source of frustration for many firms, as it can take the average practitioner more than three hours to research and respond to a single notice. And this all comes with a sense of anxiety due to the almost certain panic and stress the clients are feeling.”

Canopy’s Notices product enables tax and accounting professionals to quickly identify the type of IRS notice their client received, and then provides comprehensive steps and best practices to quickly resolve the issue.

Supporting features include:

Notice Library – Professionals can quickly assess and understand the situation of time-sensitive notices with search capabilities via Canopy’s Notices library, allowing for on-the-spot client advice and consultation.
Resolution and Letter Templates to Take Action – Resolve each notice with step-by-step instructions and tools developed by seasoned tax professionals and former IRS employees.
Management Dashboard and Status Tracking – Never let a notice slip through the cracks. Canopy lets users assign tasks, track progress based on official deadlines, and see engagement statuses—all within one dashboard to view firm-wide activities.

“Despite the deluge of IRS notices, an effective software solution that handles the holistic process for managing and responding to them has not been available to accounting professionals,” continued Barrett. “Canopy is pleased to roll out this new solution for our users to further streamline the complex tax process by dramatically reducing the time spent on each notice and increasing clarity and coordination across the board.”