Importance of Notifying the IRS of Your Address Change

• Posted on April 24, 2008
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You may have a refund coming and failure to file the change of address could delay that refund from reaching you.

The IRS may send you correspondence which requires a timely response. By mailing that correspondence to your last known address, the IRS fulfills their legal notification requirements and any repercussions as a result of your lack of response becomes your responsibility, even if you never received the notice. Therefore, it is always good practice to promptly notify the IRS of an address change by filing Form 8822. Click here to access an online form fill and print version of IRS Form 8822.

If this change also affects the mailing address for your children who filed income tax returns, complete and file a separate Form 8822 for each child.

Prior Name(s) - If you or your spouse changed your name because of marriage, divorce, etc., complete line 5. Also, be sure to notify the Social Security Administration of your new name, so that it has the same name in its records as what you have on your tax return. This prevents delays in processing your return and issuing refunds. It also safeguards your future social security benefits.

P.O. Box - If your post office does not deliver mail to your street address, show your P.O. box number instead of your street address.

Foreign Address - If your address is outside the United States or its possessions/territories, enter the information in the following order: city, province or state, and country. Follow the country's practice for entering the postal code. Please do not abbreviate the country name.

This office can prepare the IRS Form 8822 for you, or if you complete and file it yourself, please forward a copy to our office so that we may update our records and put the copy of the 8822 in your tax file.