This weekend, I made my annual pilgrimage to the home of Rocco, my long
time CPA, to drop off my tax organizer. After covering the profession for 12
years, one can imagine the horror stories I’ve heard over that time and even
now from preparers whose clients simply pile all their W-2s and other relevant
documents in a manila envelope or a shoebox and say, “have at it.”
By contrast, I’ve always prided myself on the way I organize my client
file, an explanation is paper-clipped to each document thereby easing Rocco’s already
difficult job of somehow getting me a refund – of any kind. I know he has at
least 300 other tax clients, so I’m sure he appreciates one less 1040 mess to try
and unravel.
But this year he was beside himself. He has never been a flag-waving
fan of the support department of the IRS but he claims that 2015 reached a new
low –even for his skeptical expectations. He tried on several occasions to get
an answer to a question related to an irrevocable trust and after three days of
waiting he gave up. A similar outcome came less than a week later regarding one
of college tuition reimbursement.
Silence.
Apparently even IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted that due to
budget cuts, the 2015 filing season will be a rough one for the service.
Despite upgrades, their technology is still far behind where they need it to be
and call waits for the practitioner help line are now approaching those of the
standard taxpayer hotline, which according to some may rival calls placed to a
utility company during a power outage.
And apparently, audits also are way down on year over year comparisons,
which I’m not sure will vault to the top of the list regarding taxpayer
concerns.
So without going out on a ledge here I’m guessing tax reform isn’t
going to happen anytime soon. Or even beyond soon.
Nevertheless, Rocco told me regardless he still has several hundred
1040s to complete – with or without help from the IRS. So my best advice to him
was to buckle his seatbelt, it looks like it promises to be a bumpy ride.
But hopefully, not bumpy enough to prevent me from a refund.
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