Form 1040v - Mellon Bank Corp. contract cancelled following missing returns - Brief Article

California CPA, Nov, 2001

For the last few years, the IRS has asked taxpayers with a balance due to mail their completed tax returns to a lock box and include Form 1040V. The "V" stands for voucher. The taxpayer was requested to enclose the voucher, check and signed tax return in one envelope and send it to a P.O. box. The P.O. box directed the items to a bank that processed the payment and voucher and forwarded the tax return to the IRS.

The IRS has acknowledged that at least 40,000 returns sent to the lockbox for the Andover, MA Service Center have gone astray at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh. The IRS canceled that contract with Mellon Bank in August.

Supposedly bank employees fell behind and stacked returns on the floor near a shredding machine. Mellon Bank terminated several employees as a result of its internal investigation. The Mellon Bank-IRS processing contract for its Los Angeles bank has not been canceled.

There is no penalty for sending a return with a check directly to the service center.