The IRS: My Dealings With Thee (1 Viewer)

[Chuck C]

You figure that calling the IRS at 10:30 means not waiting on hold, right? No. 15 minutes, not too shabby. Why did I call in the first place you ask? Welp, I didn't get my tax refund. Anyway, after I got in touch with an agent, the woman on the other end assisted me with ease and politeness. She was very helpful and nice. Meanwhile sitting beside me was my dad (the family accountant who actually is an accountant) who was frustrated the whole time. After going through all the lines on my 1040, the IRS woman "believed" my claims to be true, and she updated my file. Here's the point: I have to wait up to 4 weeks because the IRS lost my W-2 forms. Why couldn't they admit that!?

This isn't a big deal to me since I'm not getting back much money plus I don't plan to spend a ton of money between now and June 14th. But my dad said that the IRS is notorious for losing mail. Has anything similar ever happened to any of you guys? Was it a pleasant experience?

 

[Denward]

I've used Turbotax to do my taxes and I've been filing electronically for the past 2 or 3 years. You don't have to send a single piece of paper in the mail. You don't need to mail W-2's and you can even have your payment/refunds directly deducted/deposited.

 

[Gregory E]

Well, I hate to admit it, but I work for the IRS. I don't know what happened in your case, but there are any number of things that could have happened. We deal with millions and millions of pieces of mail. Some don't even get to us, they get lost by the post office. Others get torn to shreds during the mailing process. And some forms come with some the the nastiest stains you've ever seen. Blood, coffee, dirt, you name it. Finally, some just get lost or misplaced in the shuffle. Especially if the W-2's aren't attached properly, they can easily get stuck to another taxpayer's form.

So, I'm not making excuses for the IRS. But when you're dealing with that kind of volume, there's bound to be some problems. IMHO, they do a pretty good job considering the amount of forms they handle. Good luck to you.

-G

 

[Scott Strang]

Gregory E sez

Well, I hate to admit it, but I work for the IRS.

Hmmmm. My brother worked for them for about 5 or 6 years and ended up having to retire due to depression.

Wonder why?

 

[Eric Kahn]

I work for the post office, we set the mangle-o-matics on high during tax season at the specific request of the IRS
Actually nothing changes during Tax season except this year they put in a new enclosed area to sort the IRS mail for a new Zip code they were issued in the Ohio region

 

[SteveA]

I haven't had any experience with the IRS losing mail, but I do have another rant:

When my fiancee filed her 2000 return, the IRS sent her a refund check for $1000 more than she was expecting, along with a note stating that she had made a mistake on her return. She happily cashed the check and figured the IRS was right.

Now, over a year later, she received a letter stating that she underpaid taxes by $1000 in 2000 - along with a bill for $1000 plus interest. Also, the letter repeatedly refered to her as a "delinquent filer" and threatened to garnish wages if she doesn't pay by a certain date. What a crock!

 

[Jeff Loughridge]

I live for the day that I see IRS agents sitting on the curb at major intersections, with a tin cup and a sign that says, "Will audit for food."

It's nothing personal about them, they are just doing their job. I just wish we would abolish the tax code entirely and go to a consumption based sales tax. No tax on food, medicine, or clothing, so essentials are available to everyone. A flat 15% on nearly everything else, though; and NO automatic paycheck witholding.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Another convenient scapegoat is another government agency, the Postal Service. I can verify that state taxation departments routinely receive properly addressed mail directed to the federal IRS. Apparently the USPS can't quite distinguish between the two, though the April 15th volume of course requires us to cut them a certain amount of slack for screwups. But on an average basis, out of every 150 pieces of mail directed to our state's department of revenue there are 2 or 3 items that are actually for the IRS. So if your refund claims happened to be one of those two or three, well, you may be waiting a few months.

 

[Chuck C]

To Denward: why should we [our family and my dad's clients] be forced to use electronic filing when the mail service is just as effective?....oh wait, the mail service isn't the best...pretty unreliable it seems. I predict that we'll switch over to electronic filing upon evaluating the safety of sending tax info over the Internet.
To Gregory E: I guess you guys are just doing your job
To Scott Strang:
And now to lock up this thread for good...the IRS is just another L*ft Wing scam that makes us tax-paying citizens uneasy about our government. When you (HTF people) hear the name "IRS", how does it make you feel? What kinda peripheral view do you have about the IRS. For me, all I think is "not good, get lost".

 

[Holadem]

About of 1/3rd my income goes to the feds (and state). Whenever I feel the need to bitch about it, I remember that without federal financial aid, I would have never made it through college...

--

Holadem

 

[Chuck C]

I got my bones from the IRS today! Only two weeks!

 

[Matt Stryker]

They lost my W-2s as well, I had to mail them in today. I just don't understand why this information cannot be provided to them directly by the companies via a large scale electronic data transfer.

 

[Carl Miller]

Well, as long as we're confessing. I work there too.

Like Gregory said, it isn't just the IRS. Considering the sheer volume of mail that comes in, both the IRS and the USPS do a pretty good job. Could be better, of course.

One of the things I do with my new staff is take them for a walk over to the mail room during peak filing season. You can't even comprehend the amount of mail that comes in until you see the mountain of mail in a service center mailroom on April 15th. It's actually astounding.

 

[Chris Lock]

> I just don't understand why this information cannot be provided to them directly by the companies via a large scale electronic data transfer.

As stated above, you can send the info yourself electronically. I did it that way this year, & got my refund in 2 weeks, even though I didn't file til almost April 15. If I'd mailed the return in, I'd still have another month or so to wait for a check.

I also think filing electronically is at least as safe as mailing a return. It uses a secure connection, & anyone who managed to intercept & decrypt your return would have to be familiar with the IRS' file format. Then what would they do with that info? Someone capable of all that with bad intent would be more likely to spend his time hacking elsewhere.

 

[Larry Seno Jr.]

I haven't paid taxes in 3 years.

 

[Matt Stryker]

As stated above, you can send the info yourself electronically. I did it that way this year, & got my refund in 2 weeks, even though I didn't file til almost April 15. If I'd mailed the return in, I'd still have another month or so to wait for a check.

I understand you can file the return electronically, I want to know why your employer cannot submit your W-2 electronically (so you don't have to deal with that part of the return). It all gets reported to the IRS anyway, so there isn't a lot of advantage to you receiving it and then passing it on to the taxman.