Bank mail is a good place to lose a letter
The acceptance is a thin letter, and thin letters sink. They slide under signature cards, under last year's package, under the certificate that looks more official because it has a seal. When we sort a stack we pull every sheet that mentions Form 2553 or Form 8832 and we lay them in date order before we read anything else. The newest acceptance for the year in question is the one that matters. Older drafts and unsigned copies stay in the pile, marked as drafts.
A copy someone printed from an email can be the real letter, or it can be the application before anyone accepted it. Look for language that the election was accepted, and look for the tax year it covers. An application without that acceptance is a request still in motion. The return cannot treat the request as a finished choice.
A late letter wears different clothes
A timely acceptance and a late request are easy to staple together because both mention the same form number. They are not the same event. The late letter is about a year that has already started. It may sit in the file for months while the question is open. Until it is accepted, the default classification is still the one the packet has to follow, and the books should be closed on that default rather than on a hope.
We will not hide a late letter at the bottom and we will not promote it to the front. It gets its own place in the order, behind the rule it is trying to soften. If the folder has no letter at all, say that out loud. A missing acceptance can be named. A guessed one cannot.
What else is usually on top of it
The certificate, the number letter, and the operating agreement are the pages owners are proud of, so they ride the front. Pride is not classification. The operating agreement can say what the owners meant. The IRS still wants the election it accepts. Read why the certificate is a birth record and why the bank form stops at the bank.
Once the letter is on top, the next sheet in a useful stack is the entity return, and only then the K-1s that came out of it. That order is written out on the handoff page. Bring the pile as it is. We would rather see the mess than a tidy stack that left the acceptance in a drawer.
Say if the letter is missing
Say whether you have found an acceptance, a late request, or neither, and where you looked.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.