More Fun With Your Tax Dollars At Work
Wednesday, October 14th, 2020 06:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizvogelI needed to accomplish something on this gray and chilly day, so I decided to try the IRS website again.
Site's back up! So I tried to file the 990-N. Or rather:
I set up a user account for e-Postcard filing. This is a multi-step process with security and site images and challenge questions and confirmation emails. Finally got that set up.
Then I set up an e-Postcard Profile. This is the point at which I find out if the organization has been successfully set up to file the e-Postcard, as I previously alluded to. And guess what, it hadn't.
So I called the IRS.
The usual phone-menu routing, including the "get help" option that always hangs up on you because they're always too busy. Called back, picked "other". 30-45 minutes on hold, to get to an earnest young man who sincerely wanted to help, but kept reading me large swaths of the tax code that demonstrated he didn't have the slightest clue what I was talking about. After an hour or so of this, he finally read me one last thing, then transfered me to another department. Only 4-7 minutes on hold, before a helpful young woman was able to look us up and confirm that we weren't set up as a 990 filer (this would be why I was calling, yes), but couldn't investigate why; for that, she had to transfer me to another department.
Aaaand I'm back to the department I started with. (You can tell the departments by the helpful instructions interspersed with the hold music.) Another 30-45 minutes on hold (I think it was longer). The IRS actually has very pleasant hold music, which is good because I'm going to be hearing it in my dreams. And finally I get through to another helpful young woman, who takes all of ten minutes to get my information (again), look us up, and tell me that the request I called with in mid-August wasn't put into the master file until last week. Another four weeks, and it should be processed and I can proceed.
Three and a half hours on the phone, and once I finally got to someone who knew her job, the answer took ten minutes. Not a great answer (more waiting), but at least she could assure me that it was just the tortoise crawl of bureacracy and not some kind of problem.
The housemate has now brought me a very large drink. *headdesk*
Site's back up! So I tried to file the 990-N. Or rather:
I set up a user account for e-Postcard filing. This is a multi-step process with security and site images and challenge questions and confirmation emails. Finally got that set up.
Then I set up an e-Postcard Profile. This is the point at which I find out if the organization has been successfully set up to file the e-Postcard, as I previously alluded to. And guess what, it hadn't.
So I called the IRS.
The usual phone-menu routing, including the "get help" option that always hangs up on you because they're always too busy. Called back, picked "other". 30-45 minutes on hold, to get to an earnest young man who sincerely wanted to help, but kept reading me large swaths of the tax code that demonstrated he didn't have the slightest clue what I was talking about. After an hour or so of this, he finally read me one last thing, then transfered me to another department. Only 4-7 minutes on hold, before a helpful young woman was able to look us up and confirm that we weren't set up as a 990 filer (this would be why I was calling, yes), but couldn't investigate why; for that, she had to transfer me to another department.
Aaaand I'm back to the department I started with. (You can tell the departments by the helpful instructions interspersed with the hold music.) Another 30-45 minutes on hold (I think it was longer). The IRS actually has very pleasant hold music, which is good because I'm going to be hearing it in my dreams. And finally I get through to another helpful young woman, who takes all of ten minutes to get my information (again), look us up, and tell me that the request I called with in mid-August wasn't put into the master file until last week. Another four weeks, and it should be processed and I can proceed.
Three and a half hours on the phone, and once I finally got to someone who knew her job, the answer took ten minutes. Not a great answer (more waiting), but at least she could assure me that it was just the tortoise crawl of bureacracy and not some kind of problem.
The housemate has now brought me a very large drink. *headdesk*
