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Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

wsj.com

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Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#31

Post by giantg2 »

HillRat wrote: post #5

The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results. As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one f…

Is increasing the enforcement arm going to help with these questions?

Also, they are increasing the inforcement arm substantially, to the point it should be above the 2010 levels.

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#32

Post by ceejayoz »

baseballdork wrote: post #26
LorenPechtel wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Honestly can't keep up with the conspiracies and euphemisms. Which party is deliberately sabotaging it and how are they cheating?

https://apnews.com/article/irs-treasury-tax-audit-income-7c1...

> Due to previous years of underfunding, the IRS had cut back on the auditing of wealthy individuals and the shifting of assets among partnerships and companies became common.

https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted

> The effects of an explosion in tax cheating would be dire. The nation’s already soaring budget deficit would surge by hundreds of billions of dollars more, pushing it well past $1 trillion. Commissioners of the IRS, starting with President George W. Bush’s appointee, Douglas Shulman, have warned Congress about a crisis like this since the budget cuts began, in 2011. But after eight years, Republican lawmakers, who are chiefly responsible for the reductions, show no signs that they think the danger is urgent. By the time the danger becomes indisputable, immense harm will already have been done.

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#33

Post by fragmede »

more_corn wrote: post #28

In a quintessential example of late stage capitalism you can pay a service to get you to the front of the line. They DDOS the irs phone lines and give every available slot to a paying customer. At the expense of making it impossible for normal people to get through. This behavior is not treated as illegal or abusive by the powers that be.

Pay a service to get to the front of the line to get on a phone call with the IRS? Not to expose myself as a member of the burgoise or something, but I pay a CPA to deal with that entire problem.

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#35

Post by giantg2 »

devoutsalsa wrote: post #7

I contact my congressional representative when I need help with the IRS. Have done it twice now. Works great.

Hard to believe they actually get back to you and help. Any correspondence I've had with representatives is basically met with a form letter that doesn't even address the actual content of my concern.

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#36

Post by cchance »

giantg2 wrote: post #31
HillRat wrote: post #5

The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results. As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one f…

Is increasing the enforcement arm going to help with these questions? Also, they are increasing the inforcement arm substantially, to the point it should be above the 2010 levels.

I'm sure cutting 20 BILLION in funding from them in the IRA isn't going to fuck over any of their internal processes or hiring

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#37

Post by jmclnx »

HillRat wrote: post #5

The IRS is a perennial budgeting football for Congress, even though it's one of the few agencies for whom increasing their budget creates positive net revenue for the federal government; its enforcement arm is down 30% in staffing since 2010, with predictably dismal results. As an anecdotal comparison, I had a fairly long-running issue years ago with the IRS over a minor problem (some expenditures got posted to one f…

I had friends and relatives who worked for the US IRS in the 80s, they all would say the IRS was the one place that budgets will never be cut, so the felt far more secure than I did in Tech.

Little did they know the top 1% would get with one specific US Political Party to cut the IRS budget so thy can all cheat on their taxes. It is cheaper for them to hire lawyers than to pay their "fair share".

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#38

Post by [deleted] »

more_corn wrote: post #28

In a quintessential example of late stage capitalism you can pay a service to get you to the front of the line. They DDOS the irs phone lines and give every available slot to a paying customer. At the expense of making it impossible for normal people to get through. This behavior is not treated as illegal or abusive by the powers that be.

[deleted]

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#39

Post by mcmcmc »

LorenPechtel wrote: post #25
genter wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the major parties is deliberately sabotaging it (along with USPS, FDA, and NOAA) so they can point out how useless it is and it should just be shut down.

[flagged]

It’s almost like the parties don’t matter, and the ruling class relies on political circus as a distraction

Re: Millions of Taxpayers Call the IRS for Help. Two-Thirds Don't Reach Anyone

#40

Post by ch4s3 »

alfalfasprout wrote: post #18

Taking a step back... one big problem is that our tax code is way too complex. It means that even common people are wading through a minefield every time they file their taxes. Between unclear deductions and credits, trickiness for those that have to pay estimated taxes, and a mafia led by Intuit lobbying against simple filing it's definitely a pay to play system. More broadly, our tax code is designed to benefit the…

Yeah, it's amazing that most audits seem to be for misfiling for the Earned Income Tax Credit.
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