Although the IRS instructions state that certain taxpayers are not required to file Form 5405, some IRS offices are issuing Letter 12C asking these taxpayers to send a completed copy of the form.

If you receive a letter from the IRS requesting the form, use the phone number listed in the letter to contact your IRS office regarding the issue. 

When contacting the IRS, you may want to refer to the information below from the IRS instructions. This information shows why the form was not attached to your original return. 

Additional Information

IRS Form 5405 First-Time Homebuyer Credit and Repayment of the Credit is not e-filed with your return if you are only repaying the credit (unless you disposed of the home or quit living in it, or if it was destroyed and sold).

Per the IRS Form 5405 Instructions:

Repayment of the credit. If you are repaying the credit with your 2011 tax return, you are required to file Form 5405 only if:

• You disposed of your home or you ceased using the home as your main home in 2011, or
• You purchased your home in 2009, it was destroyed or you sold it through condemnation or under threat of condemnation in 2009, and you did not purchase a new home within 2 years of the event.

In all other cases, you are not required to file Form 5405. Instead, enter the repayment on Form 1040, line 59b, or Form 1040NR, line 58b, whichever applies. For example, you are not required to file Form 5405 if you are making an installment payment of the credit you claimed for a home you purchased in 2008 and you owned it and used it as your main home during all of 2011.

Later in the same instructions:

Part IV. Repayment of Credit Claimed for 2008, 2009, or 2010

If you purchased the home in 2008 and you owned it and used it as your main home during all of 2011, you must continue repaying the credit with your 2011 tax return.  You do not have to file Form 5405. Instead, enter the repayment on your 2011 Form 1040, line 59b, or Form 1040NR, line 58b, whichever applies.

The IRS Instructions for Form 1040 (page 43, Line 59b) contain similar language:

If you bought the home in 2008 and owned and used it as your main home for all of 2011, you can enter your 2011 repayment on this line without attaching Form 5405.