Hey everyone,

I’m in a really frustrating spot with the IRS and I’m hoping someone here has dealt with something similar.

Back in 2020, I paid my business taxes by check. Two of those checks were cashed by the U.S. Treasury — I have the bank statements and proof of the deposited checks — but the IRS never credited them to my account. Ever since, they’ve been hounding me for payment, even though I already paid.


Here’s the situation:

I have copies of the front/back of the cashed checks, showing the U.S. Treasury did indeed process them (2022–2023).

The IRS claims they can’t locate these checks in their system.

The Taxpayer Advocate is involved, but they’re saying the key number on the back of the checks is redacted with black ink — supposedly by the IRS/Treasury itself. Without that number, they won’t apply the payment.

My current bank (Chase) says it’s not them that redacted it. They also told me they can’t go back more than a couple of years for detailed records.

To complicate things, these checks were originally sent from First Republic Bank, which no longer exists (they were acquired by Chase). So my ability to chase old records is even more limited.

I have included one of those checks, front and back, as an example..

So right now, the IRS is acting like I never paid, even though the Treasury clearly cashed the checks. The Taxpayer Advocate isn’t really resolving it. The nightmare scenario is that I may have to pay my taxes a second time just because the IRS can’t reconcile their own records.

Has anyone here dealt with a situation where the IRS lost payments but you had proof the Treasury cashed the checks? What steps worked for you? Is there any legal recourse, escalation path, or technical way to force them to match up the deposits?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

IRS lost my cashed tax payment checks from 2020 - I'm on the hook