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what’s the irs hiding?

a lot. it’s bad and getting worse.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

taxpayers and their tax preparers have a right to be informed about what’s happening at the internal revenue service. it’s the law, duly legislated and mandated by the u.s. congress in the taxpayer bill of rights.

but that doesn’t mean it actually happens.

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the irs has never been especially good at providing information. taxpayers have a hard time finding out:

  • the status of their returns,
  • the reasons for delays,
  • an explanation of problems,
  • an explanation of the explanation,
  • what to do to resolve problems,
  • the reasoning behind decisions, and
  • where to get more, or better, information.

this problem is nothing new, but the pandemic has shed new light on it. with returns delayed for weeks and months, with taxpayers desperate for refunds, with the irs phone system all but impenetrable, any substantive information would have been helpful.

detailed information on a specific return would be nice—and by no means impossible—but just some basic real-time data on what’s happening at the irs as a whole would help assuage taxpayers’ concern. they might feel a little less ignored if they knew that, at the end of the 2021 filing season,

  • the irs’s error resolution system inventory had 10.3 million individual and business returns, up 544 percent from just 1.6 million in 2020;
  • there were 2.7 million unprocessed amended tax returns, up 350 percent from just 600,000 in 2020;
  • processing of form 2848, which merely assigns power of attorney and declaration of representative, takes over 70 days, up from just five.

none of those facts have ever been disclosed anywhere.

dashboard dreams

taxpayers might be a little more understanding, a little more patient, even a little sympathetic if they could click their way to a dashboard that showed

  • the number of returns received in the current season;
  • number of returns remaining from the year before;
  • the number of returns remaining from the year before that;
  • the number of returns currently in process;
  • the number of refunds issued;
  • the number of refunds expected to be made within a month;
  • the number of returns held up due to errors;
  • the expected (lol) delay in answering phone calls.

as long as we’re dreaming up dashboards, let’s conjure up one that would tell individuals with online accounts

  • whether their return has been received;
  • whether it’s on a desk or in the back of a shipping container;
  • how soon a refund might be expected, barring problems;
  • whether there’s a problem with the return;
  • if there’s a problem, what the problem is; and
  • what the taxpayer should do about the problem.

such information needn’t be in the realm of dreams. it is well within the realm of modern technology. it’s also within the purview of taxpayers’ right to be informed. the taxpayer bill of rights does not include a footnote that says “unless the irs is understaffed and can’t afford a decent computer.” which happens to be the case and which it might behoove the service to reveal to taxpayers.

until that day of openness, transparency and clarity come along, it’s up to tax preparers to explain to clients why they can’t get the information and refunds they need.

 

 

9 responses to “what’s the irs hiding?”

  1. erik nelson

    its a government agency. do you really need further explanation?

  2. kevin howard

    both parties can blame the other. it’s real patriots in the middle who get stuff done. armies are said to march on their stomachs. which means march on their wallets. if irs is going to bring in money to pay the bills, we had give them the funding they need to do their jobs.

  3. cooper glenn

    the republicans fault? you are joking. if democrats weren’t busy funding gain of function research for china and unleashing pandemics, if democrats weren’t busy funding beagle puppy experiments where the “scientists” slash throats of the puppies before trapping them in a cage with flesh eating flies, if democrats were not spending money on investigations of self-made frauds like the russia collusion hoax, if democrats were not busy handing out $ thousands to able bodied people to disincentivize their working and keeping them addicted to government handouts…. do i need to go on? ther blame for the irs being broke is squarely on the democrat party and its evil predilection for buying votes with taxpayers’ money.

    • mark gleason

      gain of function research, beagle puppy experiments, flesh eating flies, the russia collusion hoax, and disincentives to work have nothing to do with irs dysfunction. it’s clearly the republicans’ fault.

  4. cindy conklin

    well said jerry!

  5. mark zivin

    comes down to funding. and that comes down to republicans not wanting to fund it. why? to many of them, awful irs service is a feature, not a bug. they want to “prove” that government is inefficient and ineffective. it’s clear that irs should be the top budget priority. why? because every dollar spent at this point brings in more than a dollar in revenue. it pays for itself. a no brainer

    • jerry poore

      it is not fruitful to play the “blaming game” on political parties. the blame, if any, is on a clear lack of understanding how an organization can be managed effectively. it’s a people problem in the fact that politicians usually have little skills, education, or experience in managing an enterprise. add to that the need to get re-elected and they do not want to alienate their constituents by being pro-irs; as most of us voting citizens are stressed by the name irs. we fear the irs because we do not clearly understand its value and necessity. funding for more skilled employees would help lower taxes and help minimize the current government deficit. and, a more efficient irs staff would put in place all the necessary cost cutting programs to create a more tolerable program. further, too many people think the government is an enemy and do not realize that we, me, you and every citizen is the government. i am the government should be our motto. and, politicians should understand they are the government’s management team and represent all of the people equally.

      • barbara moore

        i have long thought our policy makers have progressively, over at least 20 years or more, bogged down the irs with “social programs”. our policy makers should be working on simplifying the tax code and place the social programs where they belong (out of the tax code).

    • frank stitely

      do you remember that part about lois lerner and the irs targeting conservative nonprofits? that’s why republicans won’t increase the budget. the irs has become political and thus gets treated at budget time like politicians. eliminate the politics at the irs and the politicians and more money will come. not that this is likely.