If you own a smartphone, chances are you probably use it throughout the day to post, tweet, like, and follow. Maybe your addicted to Words with Friends or Angry Birds. You’re probably NOT ordering tax transcripts or checking on the status of your refund. But according to the IRS, at least 350,000 of you have the app that allows you to engage in said geeky mobile activities. And who knows, that number may have shot up even further after today’s announcement that the IRS is rolling out the updated version of its mobile app “IRS2Go 2.0.”
I don’t know, there’s something about the IRS and technology that reminds me of the time I witnessed my mother trying to communicate with Siri. A little awkward.
~ John Wetenkamp, tax relief attorney
IRS2Go has 7 main features (#4, #5, and #6 are new in version 2.0):
- Get Your Refund Status
- Get Tax Updates
- Follow Us
- Watch Us
- Get the Latest News
- Get My Tax Record
- Contact Us
For whatever reason, I’m doubting that 350,000 downloads figure. How many times have you installed a free app only to uninstall it minutes later after discovering you don’t like it? Does the 350,000 include that scenario? It’s not that the IRS doesn’t know technology. It’s not that the app has completely unusable features either. I just can’t imagine very many people would want to be reminded of their tax obligations (or tax problems) 6,000 times a day — each time they glance at their phone. Most people only want to think about the IRS one time per year, and even then they don’t want to have to ponder the thought for too long.