Taxable Talk

Back in March I wrote about my client who received an IRS notice regarding his 2012 tax return. I had immediately sent a reply in to the IRS. The IRS received it and it went into the queue. In March, the IRS sent a collection notice (a CP501) requesting payment. As my client doesn’t owe the tax, I called the IRS up. A nine-week hold was put on collection activities, with the woman I spoke to believing that would be sufficient.

It wasn’t.

On Friday I received a CP503 notice for this client; that’s the third of four nastygrams the IRS will send requesting payment. (The IRS skipped sending the CP502.) I called the IRS up, and my client’s file still has not been looked at. Later this week it will be seven months since my reply was received. Another nine-week hold has been put on collection activities as the IRS admits that there is correspondence waiting to be reviewed. If we go nine more weeks it will be over nine months since I responded.

Unfortunately, many times it takes two to three letters to resolve a matter. If this is the case here, it could easily take over a year before this is resolved. I happen to have an understanding client (mainly because he knows the original IRS notice is wrong), but not all clients are understanding. Worse, things figure to go downhill from here.

The IRS and Democrats wishing the IRS scandal to vanish won’t make it so. The revelations during the last week are going to harden Republicans’ stance on funding the IRS. The taxpaying public will suffer because of this, but I can’t lay the blame on the GOP here. Someone ordered the targeting of Tea Party groups, and until that person is made known and the IRS stops its delaying tactics on the scandal, the IRS’ budget will go down, not up.

The IRS now must deal with:
– Implementing the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare);
– Tax extenders passing in November or December; and
– Potentially more budget cuts.

This is not a recipe for good customer service.

If you’re a tax professional, remember to let your clients know that it may take a long, long time before they hear anything from the IRS. If you’re a taxpayer and you’ve written the IRS, be patient. It only seems like you’re Waiting for Godot.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 18th, 2014 at 8:10 pm and is filed under IRS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.