These are not words you want to hear from the guy in charge at the IRS. Maybe your clients think it's miserable, or maybe you think it's miserable around March 30th when you still don't have the damn receipts you asked for two months ago, but the IRS is not supposed to think it's miserable. If they do, they aren't supposed to say so. Whelp, they just did:
The Internal Revenue Service is gearing up to be hated even more than usual due to a “miserable” tax filing season, [IRS Commisioner John Koskinen] warned. That’s because of a lack of funding from Congress combined with increased responsibilities.
The 2015 tax filing season “will be one of the most complicated filing seasons we’ve ever had,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen warned at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) National Tax Conference in Washington, DC Thursday. “All we can do is try to maximize our services as well as we can; as well as we can is still going to be miserable. You really do get what you pay for.”
National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson concurs with all her precious heart, telling the conference “The filing season is going to be the worst filing season since I’ve been the national taxpayer advocate; I’d love to be proved wrong, but I think it will rival the 1985 filing season when returns disappeared."
I, like a lot of you, was too young to recall that filing season as I only made approximately $25 in birthday/Christmas money that tax year and therefore did not have to report but perhaps some of our resident olds can chime in and tell us about how they had to walk the returns uphill in the snow both ways to the post office.
Koskinen also said phone service could plummet to 53 percent, meaning nearly half of taxpayers calling the IRS will not be able to get through. That's a change of what, 0.1% from last year? Those who do get through can expect to wait over half and hour. Again, that sounds pretty good actually. Even the DMV doesn't serve you that quickly.
For those of you preparing for a long, miserable filing season ahead, we will be with you in spirit. For now, enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts.
