Its 7:30pm. I have been connected by telephone with the IRS since 4pm today, and now have been disconnected twice. Today, I’ve given up trying to resolve a $300 discrepancy between what I paid and what the IRS says I owe. It’s maddening, almost enough to make me vote for Trump. Well, not that bad, actually. But really, can’t we do better than this?
The IRS has my phone number. They could call me back, but they don’t. Why? I’ve sent two IRS employees on a hunt for the discrepancy, only to have them come back to a dead line. Were they able to call me back, they could resolve my issue and thus reduce the backlog of people on hold. I’ve spent over three hours on hold. They have my name, my SSN, my phone number, my dispute, and it’s all wasted because they can’t—or won’t—call me back. What’s up with that? We have to start over tomorrow.
My dispute is still unresolved. I’ll spend more hours on the phone tomorrow, rehashing the same issue with agents new to the matter, wasting more time and money because this agency can’t figure out how to improve its operation. You can see its point of view from its telephone answering sequence: they’re right, it’s only how much you owe and when you’ll pay or get your refund. The chance that they’ve made an error is only a sliver of the dialog.
IMHO, President Biden could make a sizeable dent in the MAGA resentment by changing the attitude of the IRS and other public-facing orgs, in addressing our complaints and issues as legitimate and worthy of prompt treatment. Prompt, not an hour in queue, and not a dropped line.