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Ignatius M. Meen posted:I have been doing this for years and still have gone for over three hours on a call within the last few months. The people who should be thrown out the loving window are the ones who will skim the account and tell taxpayers the wrong info so they get off the phone in five minutes. You're right that the system is busted as gently caress but you are also fine. Speaking as somebody on the other end of those IRS phone calls (tax preparer), I second having someone who cares on the other end being the most important thing. Honestly, most of my questions aren't even super detailed, they tend to boil down to "did you get the thing we sent you?" more than anything, so if you can check that sort of status stuff out you've got the majority of situations I deal with covered. Taking a while doesn't bother me either because I already had to sit on hold forever (with threat of sudden random disconnect) anyway, having someone actively working on my problem is much easier to be patient for. I think there's a little of the same element I find with my clients too; if it takes a while, it just reinforces to me this is a difficult situation instead of the automatic assumption being "wow, they suck" (which I only get when I have someone ignore what I'm saying, to be blunt).
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Aug 31, 2022 00:33
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Another reason to paper file (speaking as a tax preparer) is for people filing for what’s called an ITIN. People who are here on work visas have spouses and kids who aren’t eligible for Social Security numbers, so to claim them on a return (or if you’re a foreigner who doesn’t even live in the US but needs to file tax return stuff on businesses here), you have to apply for a Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, from the IRS. As IRS efile can’t handle a lack of a number, and generally you need to show you get an ITIN by filing a return with the person on it, those all get mailed in. I specialize in those, so I’m pretty frequently trudging over to the post office with returns. Add in various other issues like the ones mentioned and various oddities (had one person whose Arkansas return I think kept rejecting because he had like five state returns and for some reason AK didn’t like that, so mail it was), and even though mostly it’s efile these days we break out the envelopes and address slips more than you’d think.
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Apr 16, 2024 22:47
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Antivehicular posted:Yeah, I work at the center that processes ITIN requests, and that's all paper returns and application materials. (I think that department barely uses IDRS, even, which feels weird to me, but everywhere has their own processes.) Well, thanks for whatever you guys did that seems to have the applications processing faster now; has been a great relief to me dealing with clients breathing down my neck for the number/refund. sullat posted:I don't think that's actually true, they just don't care enough to bother doing it. When people complained about the notices being hard to understand I always used to tell them, "a highly paid team of lawyers, bureaucrats and managers say otherwise and who are we to disagree?" God knows I spend enough time trying to clarify them for people, all of whom jump to immediate panic mode when they see a letter for any reason. One reason I hammer home to the ITIN people they should expect a letter as a result of the application. Doesn't help some of the scammers are apparently getting more clever with fakes; had one nasty one recently that would have looked pretty realistic apart from saying "your tax year 2024 refund" in there. Never thought I'd be happy nobody else can figure out the difference between tax year and the year the return is filed.
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Apr 18, 2024 04:24
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Star Man posted:I suppose now is a bad time to tell you that people making payments to the wrong year are calling about their mistake and our command code for transferring payments across tax periods and accounts is indefinitely down. Oh, I make it REAL clear what year my clients are supposed to pick (the ones who can't handle it get payment vouchers with an addressed envelope and instructions "write check for this much, put things in envelope and mail"). Also, I just went on break so I don't have to care about any tax stuff at all right now  .Star Man posted:First call of the day and I've got someone telling me they would have gotten their refund faster if they were an immigrant or gay or trans. Well, makes me glad I try to stay very polite and thank the IRS person on the other end of the phone, hopefully I've helped prevent some stress-related aneurysms. Star Man posted:The issue was their tax return is held up in errors processing because of non-refundable tax credits claimed on the return. From what I've been told, the automated processing of electronic returns causes an error when the Residential Energy Credit is claimed alongside the Child Tax Credit (and possibly others). So the credits have to be calculated by hand, and there are over three hundred million people in this country filing tax returns all at once. Oof, know a bunch of people in that boat, that explains some things. quote:And I do explain that issue to the taxpayer and tell them I will write a referral to the (overworked and overextended) service center to deal with the issue because the normal processing timeframe has expired. But no, it's because of gay people being prioritized or whatever reason they make up. I can safely say the "immigrants get their refunds faster" is BS given the number of them that were frantically breathing down my neck for it well over a month later at least. Though the ones who weren't waiting for ITINs first also tended to have some of the energy credit + other credit stuff, come to think of it.
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Apr 20, 2024 04:12
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