12 signs you are spending too much time with the IRS

Practical and Practice issues for Professionals who practice in the area of taxation. Moral, social and economic issues relating to taxes, including international issues, the U.S. Internal Revenue Code, state tax issues, etc. Not for "tax protestor" issues, which should be posted in the "tax protestor" forum above. The advice or opinion given herein should not be relied on for any purpose whatsoever. Also examines cookie-cutter deals that have no economic substance but exist only to generate losses, as marketed by everybody from solo practitioner tax lawyers to the major accounting firms.
Arthur Rubin
Tupa-O-Quatloosia
Posts: 1756
Joined: Thu May 29, 2003 11:02 pm
Location: Brea, CA

12 signs you are spending too much time with the IRS

Post by Arthur Rubin »

For any US tax practitioners who need to spend more time here:

1. You can’t get the IRS hold music out of your mind
2. You get the same IRS employee on the phone again
....
For the rest, see the Accounting Today article.
Arthur Rubin, unemployed tax preparer and aerospace engineer
ImageJoin the Blue Ribbon Online Free Speech Campaign!

Butterflies are free. T-shirts are $19.95 $24.95 $29.95
AndyK
Illuminatian Revenue Supremo Emeritus
Posts: 1591
Joined: Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:13 pm
Location: Maryland

Re: 12 signs you are spending too much time with the IRS

Post by AndyK »

From the last line (or so) of the article:
In the age of online customer service, we should be able to get our tax information online (in a readable format) and communicate/interact with our tax administrator electronically.
Unfortunately, (First-hand knowledge as an es-IRS employee), the Service is obsessive about privacy. I was involved in some of the earlier e-file projects and all of the good ideas we had were nixed due to potential vulnerabilities. After all, why do you think you can't e-file directly from your home/work computer without going through an intermediary?

I even had to use a special, government-issue modem to estavlish a VPN connection when working from outside my office.

Until the day comes that the Internet is totally secure, the IRS will be one of the last federal agencies to move into the 21st century.

Then again, just consider a Washington Post headline: "IRS E-File Hacked. 200 Million Citizen's Records Compromised"
Taxes are the price we pay for a free society and to cover the responsibilities of the evaders