Not sure, but something strange and somewhat similar to this happened to me recently. A large brokerage firm at which I have had accounts for many years, suddenly sent me a request for a W-9 for an account that has been open there for years claiming that the IRS notified them it did not recognize the EIN (it's a trust account) and I needed to submit a new W-9 immediately (which I did and then they said the IRS was satisfied with it).
Nothing changed on that account, it's been filing taxes under the same name and same EIN for 5 years with no problems. All of a sudden they didn't recognize it? Makes no sense.
And then! The brokerage firm put the account on "B notice!" HUH? B notice means that the account is owned by a non-resident if the USA and means they automatically start withholding taxes (which they did start doing!). Have no idea where that came from. Contacted them and after about 2 hours of my time wasted finally got them to remove the B notice and reverse the withholding transactions. What a pain.
Don't know how much of this was the brokerage and how much was the IRS, but something was definitely weird. Didn't affect any of my other accounts including a second trust that I have.
Maybe it has something to do with the Democrat's new 87,000 new IRS hires?
