an accountant has had enough of broken promises.
editor’s note: a reader shared with us an open letter sent to the irs. we removed some capitalization, bold/italic type and extra punctuation, but every word is just as written.
open letter via priority mail; delivery signature required
the honorable daniel werfel, commissioner
internal revenue service
1111 constitution ave, nw
washington, dc 20224
exclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.
re: aicpa presentation 11-14-23. please stop complaining about budgets. focus on setting priorities, allocating resources, taxpayer bill of rights and the strategic operating plan like the rest of us out here; stop whining and just do your job.
dear commissioner werfel:
this letter is in response to your whining and complaining presentation to the aicpa on 14 november 2023 about irs declining budgets. since it appears your aunt (you referred to her at least six times) is your closet “go to” advisor (oh, do you pay her? if so, do you issue her a 1099-nec?), here is what an honest and blunt aunt would tell you: o danny boy! pull your head out of the sand, wake up and smell the coffee: virtually all business and humanity has had to deal with declining budgets and resources for the last 50 years. some very large organizations no longer exist because they failed to set priorities and allocate resources. (think sears roebuck. remember them? they invented mail order and are gone today! so, how did amazon get to where it is? clearly, better management. hint: does the irs have management?)
i will give the irs just one “get out of jail” pass: namely, if stupidity were a crime then charles rettig (your predecessor) should be arrested and put away for shutting down the irs for the pandemic. how is it that walmart and all of its employees were essential and irs operations were not essential? further, how many pandemic-related deaths did walmart have? see my point? probably not, because you’re too busy complaining about declining budgets. how about you take former taxpayer advocate nina olson’s advice and hire retired irs employees to help get caught up?
over the last 50 years, the irs has moved from thousands of employees madly keypunching millions of tax returns to the e-file system for more millions of returns. so, i ask, where are all the keypunchers? guess who does all the keypunching now? me and other tax preparers! tax preparers have faced the same budget cuts and increasing costs as the irs. has the irs paid us for the work we do? really stupid question, right? why would irs pay preparers for processing tax returns? make the taxpayers pay – and they do, year after year after year, so again, stop whining.
you need to understand that the irs is an intrinsically prejudiced bureaucracy against the very taxpayers it is supposed to service. all of the systems of the irs assume the taxpayer is wrong until they prove themselves innocent. all the time! because of the prejudice, consider that all individual balances due of $250 or less just get waived. think of the time and paper savings. i mean how much can it be?
you and the irs need to focus on setting priorities, allocating resources to meet the priorities, then execute and do your jobs. you can have all the money in the world and still not provide decent taxpayer (not “customer,” taxpayers are much more significant than customers) service.
i have read the enclosed strategic operating plan: guess what? tell me where meeting the taxpayer bill of rights is to be found. where is the definition of “top-quality service”? please tell me where is the goal, objective, initiative to:
1.) answer the phone, timely (defined as say within 10 minutes)?
2. how about timely reply to mail (defined as say within 30 days)?
none of these simple tasks is discussed in the plan. why should anyone invest in it?
please call to discuss these matters.
sincerely,
c.d. giedt, cpa