When you’re busy targeting conservatives for extra scrutiny, it’s tough to do your job right.
See if this makes sense to you, because it sure as heck doesn’t to me. Every year, the Internal Revenue Service makes its tax code even more complicated than it was the year before. But instead of offering more help to people confused by the code and its many annual changes, the IRS offers less help. In fact, the agency leaves millions of questions unanswered from Americans who are doing nothing more than trying to understand the code so that they can abide by it.
That’s the situation in which we currently find ourselves. A watchdog report to Congress found that 39 percent of the people seeking to speak with an IRS customer service representative were not able to get through by phone last year, which left nearly 20 million phone calls unanswered. That’s about four out of every 10 people! And even those who are fortunate enough to get through after an average wait time of 18 minutes won’t have their questions answered unless the questions are “basic.”
As National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson said, “It is a sad state of affairs when the government writes tax laws as complex as ours and then is unable to answer any questions beyond ‘basic’ ones from baffled citizens who are doing their best to comply.”
And for those who think that writing a letter to the IRS might bring a better result than making a phone call, think again. In 2013, the IRS received 8.4 million letters with questions, but answered fewer than one-half of them.
In explanation for falling down on the job, IRS officials say that they have fewer employees now due to budget cuts, and that those cuts have also significantly limited the amount of training that their agents receive.
Isn’t it funny, though, that while the IRS doesn’t have enough manpower to do what it’s supposed to be doing, it does have enough manpower to do what it’s not supposed to be doing – targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny when it comes to filing for tax-exempt status.
The FBI recently declared that the IRS was guilty of no wrongdoing when it came to that scandal – following one of the most phony-baloney “investigations” I’ve ever seen – but we all know the truth. Obama’s IRS is far more interested in trying to make life miserable for people who disagree with Obama’s policies than it is in helping U.S. citizens properly file their tax returns.
Have you ever tried to get your tax questions answered by the IRS? What was your experience with that? Did you get a live voice on the phone or a reply to a letter? If so, were your questions answered to your satisfaction? I’d love to hear from you about this.
I have always done my own taxes and being self employed, I have always had to pay at tax time. Not a bad thing. I would rather owe than have Uncle keep my money. Anyway a few years ago I had a particularly difficult tax return. I filed it and sent along a rather large check. several months later I got a letter stating that I still owed another $1200. I wet over all my records and did find a discrepancy but it was for a smaller amount but rather than dispute it and cause more problems I went ahead and paid the $1200. Another couple months past by and I recieved another letter from the IRS referencing the same issue stating that I owed $950, which was almost the amount of the discrepancy that I had found, WTF? It took the next several months, with letters and visits to the local IRS office to get them to admit that I had paid the $1200 but they never did refund the difference to me between the $1200 and $950. BUNCH OF JERKS working there.
Yep better to owe the IRS than get a refund, I’m still waiting for my small $719 refund from last year. And no one at the IRS can tell me why the long delay in getting my refund, they say that my taxes are OK, no red flag issues, but still can’t tell me why I haven’t got my money yet and have no idea when I will see it. They dis however say that there will be NO interest on my refund. That blows because if you are even 1 day over due on paying them they charge you interest and penalties.
A good friend ceased paying (all her owed) US income taxes about a decade ago and she still gets all her SSA and Medicare benefits.
I’ll try that.
When it comes to an “Audit” there are two questions that need to be answered. #1 Did I request an Audit? and #2 Show me the Law that states that I must provide my books for an Audit, and I will comply! (There is no such Law.) Rob B.
The IRS needs to be abolished, NOW.! Flat , or consumption tax is much preferable.
Hola John,
I have lived in Mexico for nearly 12 years and pay virtually NO US consumption taxes.
Be careful what you wish for, as the wealthy will leave the useless USA!
I have paid taxes for as long as I have worked. For the past five years I have filed electronically, doing everything correctly except checking up on my filed returns. This past tax year 2013, I filed as usual, owing some $7k, again filing electronically with payment withdrawal information. 2 months go by and the amount was still in my account. Went to local office where I was told I hadn’t filed in two years and that I owed a bunch more for “failure to file”, etc. Long and short of it, someone filed with my SS number and my filing was rejected, for the past two years I received NO notice of any impropriety even though it was pretty evident it wasn’t me that filed since it was a single individual that filed for me and I have filed as married filing jointly for 30 years. When I went to pay them for the past year, I was told I owed more and it would be better if I paid them all the interest and penalties right then. The agent admitted there was fraud and submitted the past two years to the ID Theft section for investigation. The agent even said it wasn’t meant to defraud me, but the IRS. The $1100 I owed in interest and penalties was cut to $317.26 after the IRS recalculated my recently-resubmitted returns for 2011-2103, because they owed me from my miscalculation. I paid by check the remaining $317.26, which cleared on 9/9/14. I received a letter from the IRS dated September 22 stating I owed them $317.26 plus 0.92 interest. My question is “IS ANYONE HOME AT THE IRS THESE DAYS?” How long will I have to be on the phone with someone, if I can even talk to a human, before this has a chance of being resolved? I’m not even asking for tax exemption status. What has this country come to? Do people hate thus country so bad that our own people are being turned against us, without remedy?
I had a good auto repair business and when the state of Pennsylvania department of revenue came to me and told me they were doing an audit , I complied . After three months of them reviewing my paperwork , I was told I had 375000 dollars of unreported income . When I asked how did they come up with this ….. I was told they assumed my income and I had to pay the tax on that income … I spent two years fighting with lawyers and still have a 100000 dollar tax lien against me .. taxes and government are a joke .. I wish I could assume things like this ..Drew Alexander from Pennsylvania.
For seven years, I have been asking the most basic questions that can be asked; What law makes me, an individual liable?; What law repealed the requirement of apportionment of direct taxation?; What Supreme Court case changed the meaning of income from “a profit or gain severed from capital”?; What evidence do you have that I have taxable income?
These fundamental questions have gone unanswered for seven years. During this period I have received more than 50 IRS letters stating that they will answer me in 45 days! Yet they still continue to threaten me without providing an answer to my questions. Well, according to your article, my odds are increasing from 8.4 million letters that only 50% get answered! Go figure?
The best way to get an answer to your IRS questions is to e-mail them. Then you also have a record of what they told you. A lot easier than phoning them.
When I used to do my own taxes, there was always some minor descrepency…I would write every time to ask what additional income had been reported and from whom, as I had reported everything (it was always below $200) and never, never, never ever got a response and finally paid out of desperation and fear of what this out of control corrupt agency could do. And it is 1000 times worse now as far as the corruption goes.
Truth in Media “End Partisanship”
Ben Swann explains how the new coalition of EndPartisanship org is working to break the 2 party hold on primary elections, which currently lock around 50% of voters out of the process. Plus, Ben details a lawsuit that has now been filed in the state of New Jersey to break that hold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1zRfXkOmPI
Debates are the one element of modern campaigns and elections that should be immune to unfair advantages based upon funding and political party structure. Yet, the private Commission on Presidential Debates, created in 1987 by the Democratic and Republican parties, has created a debate duopoly that makes it virtually impossible for candidates other than the Republican and Democrat nominees to participate.
Change the Presidential Debates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBCCqPpt_RA
people doing something! thank you for posting these.
Jun 7, 2013 William Benny – The Government is Profiling You (The NSA is Spying on You)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB3KR8fWNh0
NSA stores data to target any citizen at any time – Greenwald October 29, 2013
http://rt.com/news/greenwald-interview-nsa-data-903/