As Tax Day approaches, you can bet the Internal Revenue Service has readied itself to help taxpayers file their returns.
No?
“It’s abysmal,” admits IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, discussing his agency’s help for Americans trying to decipher a byzantine, ever-changing tax code.
It seems only four of ten citizens ever succeed in getting through to the IRS on the phone, even after waiting multiple hours. Over days. There have been over 5 million “courtesy disconnects” — that’s IRS lingo for its phone system hanging up on you.
To boot, once you get to a real person, that employee can’t tell you much.
The problem? According to the Washington Post, the poor agency lacks the necessary funds because “Republicans on Capitol Hill have slashed the IRS budget.”
Actually, the IRS budget has gone up every year … in nominal dollars. When adjusted for inflation? Well, there has been some decline.
Bemoaning this supposed “era of shrinking government,” the Post assails conservatives in Congress, citing the “cuts” as “punishment for a string of missteps: an extravagant conference for employees in Anaheim, Calif., the targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exemptions, $1 million in bonuses given to agency employees who didn’t pay their federal taxes.”
Punishment seems in order.
But another story puts in perspective this crocodile cry for more money. The Daily Caller recently reported: “The Obama administration has quietly killed an IRS tax preparation program designed to help low-income and disadvantaged citizens, choosing instead to give millions of dollars to liberal groups for the same purpose.”
Look on the bright side, a review of these help-groups found their advice to have a mere 49 percent error rate.
This is Common sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
5 replies on “Poor, Poor IRS”
This is just fine, as when the IRS fails to “help” persons to file their taxes perhaps they will not.
No help plus Obamacare sanctions multiplies to no pay which eventually means less revenues and equals no government, not a bad equation and result. The weapons in modern revolutions and coups are going to be the W‑4 and the checkbook, the ultimate referendum.
Paul, just wondering if you’ve ever had the chance to read Pete Hendrickson’s Cracking the Code (http://losthorizons.com/Cracking_the_Code.htm). I’m certain that anyone who has not read that book has a serious, even fatal, misunderstanding of the ‘income’ tax.
Even if you do get through to a person at IRS, as often as not they know less about your problem than you do.
To add insult to injury, if you follow their advice and it’s wrong, Guess who gets into trouble.
Yep, YOU!
That’s still 1% better than flipping a coin
Right on, JFB. For years I used my W‑4 as a forced savings account and counted on the check that came early in the year to pay for that year’s vacation. That changed in 2014. I redid my W‑4 and my refund this year is about a tenth of what it was last year. I admit I did this so that there would be less for the IRS to withhold from me. I’d rather keep my money in a checking account than give the government access to it for one day .