Dealing with the IRS

SFGbob

Last week I got a letter from the IRS telling me that I owed them a few grand due to an error on my tax forms. They don't say specifically what the "error" is just that there is an error. So I pull my tax forms from last year and take a look at the section where the error supposedly is and there is no error.

So I call the number on the notice letter informing me of this "error" and that's where the fun begins.

I call them 3 times. Each and every time it's impossible to get through to a live individual calling the number they provided in their notice letter. Following the phone tree path they lay out for you in order to speak with someone about my specific issue leads you down a rabbit hole that eventually ends with your call being dropped after you've been put on hold for 40 mins. So I call the number they give for the "Taypayer advocates" and I get the option to have them call me back rather than me waiting on hold. And I'm thinking great, finally I'm getting somewhere. They call me back, and after a little more phone tree hell I finally speak to a real live person. They tell me the department I need to speak with in order to answer my questions and tell me they're going to transfer me. This not being my first encounter with soul killing bureaucracy and the wonders of Government efficiency I ask if they can give me the direct number to this department just in case I might get cut off during the transfer. Glady she says. So she transfers me and again there is a 40 minute hold and again my call is dropped. So I call the number she gave me. It takes me back to the very same voice mail tree I initially called despite the fact that it's a different phone number.

How the fuck do they get away with having customer service that sucks this bad?

pawz

SFGbob said:

Last week I got a letter from the IRS telling me that I owed them a few grand due to an error on my tax forms. They don't say specifically what the "error" is just that there is an error. So I pull my tax forms from last year and take a look at the section where the error supposedly is and there is no error.

So I call the number on the notice letter informing me of this "error" and that's where the fun begins.

I call them 3 times. Each and every time it's impossible to get through to a live individual calling the number they provided in their notice letter. Following the phone tree path they lay out for you in order to speak with someone about my specific issue leads you down a rabbit hole that eventually ends with your call being dropped after you've been put on hold for 40 mins. So I call the number they give for the "Taypayer advocates" and I get the option to have them call me back rather than me waiting on hold. And I'm thinking great, finally I'm getting somewhere. They call me back, and after a little more phone tree hell I finally speak to a real live person. They tell me the department I need to speak with in order to answer my questions and tell me they're going to transfer me. This not being my first encounter with soul killing bureaucracy and the wonders of Government efficiency I ask if they can give me the direct number to this department just in case I might get cut off during the transfer. Glady she says. So she transfers me and again there is a 40 minute hold and again my call is dropped. So I call the number she gave me. It takes me back to the very same voice mail tree I initially called despite the fact that it's a different phone number.

How the fuck do they get away with having customer service that sucks this bad?

Cliff notes: Fuck you, pay me.

creepycoug

SFGbob said:

Last week I got a letter from the IRS telling me that I owed them a few grand due to an error on my tax forms. They don't say specifically what the "error" is just that there is an error. So I pull my tax forms from last year and take a look at the section where the error supposedly is and there is no error.

So I call the number on the notice letter informing me of this "error" and that's where the fun begins.

I call them 3 times. Each and every time it's impossible to get through to a live individual calling the number they provided in their notice letter. Following the phone tree path they lay out for you in order to speak with someone about my specific issue leads you down a rabbit hole that eventually ends with your call being dropped after you've been put on hold for 40 mins. So I call the number they give for the "Taypayer advocates" and I get the option to have them call me back rather than me waiting on hold. And I'm thinking great, finally I'm getting somewhere. They call me back, and after a little more phone tree hell I finally speak to a real live person. They tell me the department I need to speak with in order to answer my questions and tell me they're going to transfer me. This not being my first encounter with soul killing bureaucracy and the wonders of Government efficiency I ask if they can give me the direct number to this department just in case I might get cut off during the transfer. Glady she says. So she transfers me and again there is a 40 minute hold and again my call is dropped. So I call the number she gave me. It takes me back to the very same voice mail tree I initially called despite the fact that it's a different phone number.

How the fuck do they get away with having customer service that sucks this bad?

Customer service?

I've been through this hell with them. Three fucking times they have failed to grasp the personal economics involved with a simple cashless exercise of a non-qualified stock option (delusions of grandeur here I guess). No, the entire amount of funds raised by selling all the underlying option shares to the market are not taxable income. I have to use a lot of that money to pay the exercise price and I never see it. Fuck. They also struggle with the idea of tax basis, a curious thing with which they should struggle. Every year, I'm also taxed at vesting of RSUs on $X, which is whatever the market price of the stock is that day multiplied by the number of vested shares. Pretty fucking simple. When I sell the vested shares at $X+Y, I don't have $X+Y taxable income. Also pretty fucking simple.

They fuck up both of these things at least half the time I have to include them in my filing. Part of the problem is with 1099 reporting and how they get the information about the transactions, but then again, who's in charge of what a 1099 is supposed to include? I forget.

Pitchfork51

SFGbob said:

Last week I got a letter from the IRS telling me that I owed them a few grand due to an error on my tax forms. They don't say specifically what the "error" is just that there is an error. So I pull my tax forms from last year and take a look at the section where the error supposedly is and there is no error.

So I call the number on the notice letter informing me of this "error" and that's where the fun begins.

I call them 3 times. Each and every time it's impossible to get through to a live individual calling the number they provided in their notice letter. Following the phone tree path they lay out for you in order to speak with someone about my specific issue leads you down a rabbit hole that eventually ends with your call being dropped after you've been put on hold for 40 mins. So I call the number they give for the "Taypayer advocates" and I get the option to have them call me back rather than me waiting on hold. And I'm thinking great, finally I'm getting somewhere. They call me back, and after a little more phone tree hell I finally speak to a real live person. They tell me the department I need to speak with in order to answer my questions and tell me they're going to transfer me. This not being my first encounter with soul killing bureaucracy and the wonders of Government efficiency I ask if they can give me the direct number to this department just in case I might get cut off during the transfer. Glady she says. So she transfers me and again there is a 40 minute hold and again my call is dropped. So I call the number she gave me. It takes me back to the very same voice mail tree I initially called despite the fact that it's a different phone number.

How the fuck do they get away with having customer service that sucks this bad?

Yeah if you are on for 30 mins or so it just straight up drops it lol

It's completely absurd. Maybe all the fired journalists can go work there

Sledog

IRS is a shithole. We were audited over rental properties and the definition of a real estate professional. Being a professional requires 750 hours of work regarding the rental. IRS new definition was it had to be actual physical labor at the properties! Nothing else counted. Nothing. Total bullshit. Lots of time is spent doing lots of other things. Shit just getting insurance takes forever to find for decent coverage at a decent price.

Pitchfork51

Sledog said:

IRS is a shithole. We were audited over rental properties and the definition of a real estate professional. Being a professional requires 750 hours of work regarding the rental. IRS new definition was it had to be actual physical labor at the properties! Nothing else counted. Nothing. Total bullshit. Lots of time is spent doing lots of other things. Shit just getting insurance takes forever to find for decent coverage at a decent price.

housing is a right. landlords are all evil

how do you not know this?

Fire_Marshall_Bill

I got audited over a decade ago. It was bullshit. I don't remember many details, besides hanging up after 20 minutes on hold. Long story short, it's easier to just go down to their office.