Good thing I have this blog as a place to vent my frustrations with the IRS. It has been like my therapist over the years.
I can really identify with Robert Wood’s article today about 1099 forms. It was obviously written from the perspective of a seasoned (and perhaps a bit jaded) tax veteran who doesn’t really trust the IRS to get things right. Basically Mr. Wood is of the opinion that if you do not receive a 1099 that you expect to receive, you might want to think twice before calling and asking for it. Why? Because you don’t need the actual form in order to file your taxes, as long as you were conscientious enough to track all of your income independently. You just need the figures. And if you happen to request a copy of something that was already issued, or is already queued up to be issued, there is a real chance that the 1099 could be sent out twice. Of course if you get a duplicate 1099, you are smart enough to recognize it as a duplicate, but the same cannot necessarily be said for the IRS. And if the IRS counts double the income, then there’s a problem.
Yes, it can be very frustrating dealing with the IRS. All that hype about how difficult the 2015 tax season will be — I don’t think it’s hype. When calling IRS service centers, I am witnessing hold times that are longer than I can ever remember. I recently spent an hour and a half on hold with three different phone reps trying to get through to the Collections Department (ACS). I dialed ACS directly, but each time I was told that I had not reached collections. I think what happens is, if the phone lines are extra busy, callers are automatically re-routed to non-ACS service centers. But the system doesn’t alert you when it is doing this, so you are forced to wait until somebody picks up. In my experience, the Practitioner Priority Service line is not any better.
I’m done venting now, thanks for listening. See you next week my therapist-blog.