who knew?
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
we all know how the irs works. they send a letter to a possibly delinquent taxpayer who, in quivering fear, returns a response that is slipped through the mail slot in the irs door, where it falls into a shredder that feeds into a massive onsite incinerator. the letter’s ashen remains are then loaded onto a rocket and shot toward alpha centauri, never to be seen again.
more: hunker down: the irs backlog isn’t going away anytime soon | the irs studebaker bomb | imagine irs ‘concierge’ service. just imagine. | irs has recruiting problems, too
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actually, that’s not entirely true. in 2019, irs compliance services collection operations managed to respond to 25 percent of its “inventory” of taxpayer delinquent account correspondence. the other 75 percent was considered “over-aged” after not being dealt with within 45 days of receipt.
csco also failed to respond to 53 percent of correspondence relating to taxpayer delinquency investigations, which are basically inquiries into taxpayers who are considered liable to file but haven’t.
and that was before the coronavirus really gummed things up.
the lag in the loop
tax preparers working with clients who are in some way delinquent in their obligations need to understand what’s happening in the csco. the lag at that end of the loop can lead to missed deadlines and consequent complications.
among the complications that could fall back on preparers when irs correspondence gets delayed:
- taxpayers wanting to resolve tax debt through an installment agreement may not be able to complete the necessary steps to finalize it.
- taxpayers who do not receive notices of outstanding debt or proposed assessment may not be aware they have a balance due or a proposed assessment.
- the employers of taxpayers selected for the withholding compliance program may not be aware of an irs-mandated adjustment to withholding.
receipts drop but inventories soar
according to an audit of the csco by the treasury inspector general for tax administration, incoming tda and tdi correspondence dropped significantly between 2016 and 2019. in that period, receipts of tda correspondence declined by 27 percent. the ending inventory of unanswered letters, however, increased by a staggering 173 percent.
tdi response – typically involving tax return delinquency notices – was even worse. receipts of tdi increased by 57 percent, but ending inventory shot up by 366 percent.
most of the unanswered correspondence was pretty serious stuff.
- 35 percent pertained to notifications that the irs had no record of a tax return being filed
- 21 percent pertained to accepted or pending installment agreements
- 18 percent were balance-due notifications
- 12 percent were proposed tax assessments
- 8 percent were withholding compliance lock-in letters directing employers to adjust a taxpayer’s withholding taxes
- only 2 percent were a miscellany of interim letters, case closure notices, penalty removals and account transcripts
in the audit report, the inspector general points out that “to promote voluntary taxpayer compliance, it is imperative that csco provide quality, prompt and professional service in addressing responses to incoming taxpayer correspondence from the irs’s tda and tdi programs.”
the ig defines a “quality response” as being
- timely
- accurate
- professional in tone
- responsive to taxpayer needs by resolving all issues without further contact
“timely” is defined as “within 30 days.” any delay beyond the 45th day is defined by the warm and fuzzy euphemism “over-aged.”
the audit lays a bit of the blame on a 2.5 percent decrease in csco staff, from 1,183 to 1,153. it says that csco correspondence has been accurate and appropriate when it happens. the problem is, it doesn’t happen fast enough. much of the delay was apparently caused by correspondence not being assigned to specific staff in a timely manner. only 4 percent of correspondence was batched for assignment within the three-day requirement.
the audit was conducted only at csco campuses in memphis, tenn., and austin, texas. a few hundred out of tens of thousands of csco-wide inventory items were sampled.
the ig made several recommendations for the irs to improve operations and performance. among them:
- review and do something about existing over-aged inventory
- review and do something about the csco job performance system
- speed up batching and assignment of incoming tda and tdi
- conduct a study to determine options for more timely processing of csco undelivered mail
the irs agreed to take action on all of the recommendations.
7 responses to “173% increase in irs correspondence backlog”
stephen schlichting
many factors building up over a long period of time that irs has identified as weaknesses have consistently fallen of deaf ears in washington.
imf and bmf are antiquated clumsy systems written with the technology limitations of the time they were created back when kennedy was president.
irs has 63 different and separate systems, with no central system that integrates and provides access to all at once.
irs staffers sit next to each other and do not have access to the same data calling through 1040, pps or acs.
for a clear explanation, one should read the taxpayer advocates annual address to congress it clearly defines large and systemic failings of the system. washington makes things worse by creating or messing with stimulus or special programs and of late filing deadlines and though we are in the middle of a tax year, dc is changing current tax year laws and rules on the fly creating more work and projects dropped on irs who are barely functioning at their mandate to collect and administer tax.
throw on that for most the nation tax preparers are unlicensed which is ludicrous, using up thousands of man-hours and resources as the irs chases fraudulent preparers or time dealing with poorly improperly prepared returns let alone the id theft risks from unscrupulous preparers taking their clients’ personal data and selling it or even filing fraudulent returns with the data.
licensing won’t stop it all but it will sure cut down a lot of wasted time and resources that could be reallocated to other issues within irs… training for one.
i find it appalling that there are incidents where an irm has changed months back and acs or pps has not knowledge and i have to fax it over to them to take to their manager and managers manager to finally confirm it can be done.
before dc demands irs do anything out of mandate, they all need to go spend a week working at irs to at least get a clue.
i would also recommend training ro’s on large dollar flagrant taxpayers.
why does a trainee need to harass a taxpayer for 433 over $35k when the taxpayer is willing to pay $1500 a month on a direct deposit and that they have been w-2 for the last 3 years and filed and paid in full since that period with the balance due, especially since there are 5 years left on the cseds?
managers, let them set it up and close the case and move on to the next.
go after the big fish, the 53 taxpayers who owe 43 billion and are continuing to pyramid those balances every year.
frank kistner
adding to frank’s comment – congress needs to fund the irs to the level necessary to provide the quality and quantity of service necessary for voluntary compliance. if people cannot get their questions answered without waiting hours on the phone, or being routed around the ivr system from hell, they will not voluntarily comply.
cindy
they should not be allowed to send out tax notices until they are caught up. we are spending too much time responding to notices that have not issues.
richard conboy
frank is spot on. i have relayed similar opinions to my stakeholder. irs thinks the definition of management is cpa. we always hire a commissioner that knows the tax code inside-out, but doesn’t know work-flow, line-balancing, production standards, and on and on. 25 years of industrial engineering tells me all i need to know about scheduling people. but will it ever change? no. because irs is a government bureaucracy and like the rest of the government they waste 50% of their budget. another question. how can the post office, walmart, home depot, lowes, and many many other large and small businesses running full out, but my sources (like pps) say irs is only staffed 1/3 to 1/2 and has been for the past year?
joe wargo
has anyone noticed that the entire federal taxation system is oppressive?
it is crushing in complexity even for tax professionals – not to mention all the other regulations our society burdened with.
it is short-sighted and foolish to believe we can keep polishing a system that simply cannot be shined.
it’s time to reinvent the system altogether. amen.
frank stitely
the irs desperately needs a commissioner who understands workflow and how wallpapering the world with notices can reduce the effectiveness in carrying out the mission of the irs. they only create more work they don’t have the resources to handle. it’s not all understaffing. a lot is outright workflow management incompetence at senior levels.
cheryl biondolillo
frank, that is the best answer i have read in a long time.