The Internal Revenue Service said Friday it would restart issuing its 500 series of balance-due notices to taxpayers later this month after they were paused on May 9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the IRS continued to issue most of its notices, the 500 series was temporarily suspended because of a backlog of mail that built up at the IRS while many employees were away from agency facilities due to COVID-19. The IRS came under fire earlier this year for issuing balance due notices with the incorrect dates to taxpayers during the pandemic and agreed to stop sending the notices until it caught up with its backlog of unopened mail (see story).
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Cathy Lanning serves as Senior Vice President for the Property & Casualty Marketing organization. In this role, she is responsible for the development and execution of integrated marketing plans for personal and commercial insurance products. Together with her team, she builds the brand and the Nationwide business leveraging data-driven direct marketing, partnerships, digital media, social media, cooperative agency marketing and lead generation strategies.
Most recently, Cathy led Strategic Partnerships where she established a large partnership portfolio with a data driven relationship-based selling approach. Together with partners such as alumni associations, cause organizations and sports organizations, Nationwide was able to understand the exact needs of a household and bring the right solutions at the right time to meet their protection needs. Under her leadership, the business unit grew by over 100% in five years.
Cathy joined Nationwide in 2007 as part of the leadership team that launched Nationwide Bank. Throughout her tenure at the company, she has held roles that require innovation, vision and team building. This includes establishing new digital marketing tools for agents, launching new products in the market, and establishing the Marketing Analytics organization. The Marketing Analytics organization delivered the first-generation marketing mix models, comprehensive digital analytics, and forecasting models, all of which helped Nationwide understand marketing effectiveness across channels and identified investment optimization pathways. The insights served the business lines across the company and opened new horizons for efficient growth and retention.
She has broad experience in brand management, analytics, partnership development, direct marketing, distribution marketing, innovation, product development and strategic planning. Prior to joining Nationwide, Cathy was the Brand Manager at The Scotts Company and Product Manager at WorldCom focused on Virtual Private Networks.
Cathy is a proud Ohio State University alumnus, holding a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing) and Masters in Business Administration. She is also a graduate from the Northwestern Kellogg Senior Women in Leadership program.
Outside of work, Cathy is a passionate advocate for education and community learning programs. To live this mission, Cathy serves on the board of The Ohio State University Alumni Association, The Girl Scouts of Ohio’s Heartland and The Wellington School.
Shelley Brazeau Temple serves as President of Nationwide P&C Personal Lines. In this role, Shelley is responsible for all aspects of the Personal Lines Profit and Loss (P&L) segment including product, underwriting, sales and distribution, claims and service.
She most recently served as Nationwide P&C Senior Vice President and Chief Claims and Operations Officer. Prior to that, she served as Senior Vice President of Member Solutions, leading the company’s insurance servicing and billing operations and direct phone sales organization.
Other leadership positions she has held are:
- Regional Vice President of Nationwide’s South Central Operations, responsible for sales, pricing, underwriting and product in a six-state geography, and managing a more than $660 million in sales revenue through exclusive agents and direct sales.
- VP of Strategy and Operational Effectiveness for Customer Service and Direct Sales of Nationwide, developing and executing an innovative contact center strategy.
- VP of Personal Lines Service Operations, responsible for personal lines service and processing center operations.
Shelley began her career at Nationwide as a Claims associate 27 years ago. Her increased responsibilities in leadership positions throughout the years also led her to work with internal audits, product and agency sales.
Shelley holds a bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University and the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriting (CPCU) designation. She has served on several non-profit boards, including Ronald McDonald Children's Charities and the American Lung Association of the Midland States with participation in development, audit/finance and executive committees.
The IRS said Friday that it has now caught up enough with its mail backlog to account for payments that are mailed on a timely basis. Some taxpayers will start seeing updated 500 series notices with current issuance and payment dates in late October or early November.
The 500 series of balance due notices includes three different types of notices that warn taxpayers about different stages of nonpayment: the CP501, the CP503 and the CP504.
The CP501 notice tells taxpayers they still have a balance due and what their options are, while the CP503 lets them know the IRS hasn’t heard from them yet and they may be subject to a tax lien if they don’t pay their taxes. The CP504 alerts taxpayers they need to pay their balances immediately or face the possibility of a levy of their state income tax refunds. The 500 series of notices are typically sent to taxpayers if they don’t respond to or pay their initial notice and demand on the CP14 letter.
Despite the resumption of the notices, the IRS is still in the process of catching up on millions of pieces of unopened mail, prompting a letter this week from Democrats on the House Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee asking if the IRS will be ready in time for next tax season (see story). They also asked the IRS this week about why it was sending out notices revoking the tax-exempt status of over 30,000 nonprofits despite an extension it was supposed to have granted them for filing the Form 990 during the pandemic while it’s in the midst of processing the backlog of unopened correspondence. Earlier this month, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told another House oversight subcommittee that the IRS was still processing 5.3 unopened million pieces of mail, including 2.5 million paper tax returns.
The IRS is encouraging taxpayers who can’t pay to consider some of the available payment options while penalties and interest continue to accrue.
The IRS noted that taxpayers who were affected by the pandemic or other circumstances may qualify for relief from penalties due to reasonable cause if they’ve made an effort to comply with the requirements of the law, but couldn’t meet their tax obligations, due to facts and circumstances beyond their control. Taxpayers should call the toll-free number listed on their notice to ask for penalty relief due to reasonable cause if they believe they qualify and have the supporting documentation to prove it. More information on reasonable cause relief can be found on a page at IRS.gov. Payment options and extra information can also be found on another page of IRS.gov.
