SO annoying

i hate spending 5 minutes giving away my life details to the IRS on the Practicioner line

AND

then

i fax over a power of attorney that takes 7 minutes for them to get thru efax



---why can't they just have you send over the fax first?

we'd both save a ton of time.

does this annoy anyone else?

We should be able to upload the documents. My state allows that and so does many other states. I think IRS is way way too rigid and behind times.

agree...we already have mailboxes for transcripts....let's use those .....IRS could shorten every call about 5 min when a power of attorney is involved.....multiply htat by a 200,000 calls or so...that's alot of minutes could save

The IRS is a PITA on this front. I can send them a 3 page fax and it takes up to 10 minutes to process through RingCentral. I have to come up with other crap to discuss with them otherwise they'll cut off the call. My faxes only take that long to send to the IRS, anyone else and they are a minute or two at longest.

Why a portal does not exist for this is mind boggling, just as the transcripts are effectively garbage. South Carolina has a FANTASTIC portal where I can obtain so much information without even having to file a POA, I just need sufficient information for any given account to prove I am indeed working with the client. I can send an electronic message and they respond no later than the next day.

These Fed Govt. employees are getting paid at a very high rate by the hour (compared to private business), Do you think they have any incentive to be more efficient.

I can't stand in the inefficiency.

I can't stand in the inefficiency. though the IRS has added a call you back feature which is at least some help.

I can't stand in the inefficiency. though the IRS has added a call you back feature which is at least some help.

Yeah, at which point they'll be interrupting my workflow with another client.

I can't stand in the inefficiency. though the IRS has added a call you back feature which is at least some help.

Yeah, at which point they'll be interrupting my workflow with another client.

Exactly that is why during busy tax season I do NOT go for the call back option with any vendor. Nothing more irritating than a call at the absolute wrong time. The very few times I did it because that was the only option, I had to excuse myself and it was not a good experience if the call lasted too long.

We should be able to upload the documents. My state allows that and so does many other states. I think IRS is way way too rigid and behind times.

Congress has been working very hard for the last 10 years to bring IRS to its knees. The strategy is a lethal combination of annual budget cuts and increases in legislatively mandated workload, plus mid-season retroactive changes to tax law.

agree...and ironically...i often talk about the indirect benefits for higher enforcement. if one auditor busts a pizza parlor with a tax bill for 100k....that pizza owner is going to tell 5 other pizza owners who will tell several other pizza owners and that will indirectly up compliance in addition to collecting the 100k.....popular to beat up on the irs....but makes things more costly in the end game to the honest taxpayer by Alot!

zl28, when I was in the Inland Revenue (as it then was) in the UK that was an approach we used. When we moved to a new office, we had to find a new bar in which to congregate on Friday lunchtimes and evening. So we inspected all the local bars and hotels with non-resident bars. Only one came up clean and they got our business but what it did do was increase compliance in the wider local area.

When Lester Piggott, a household name in the horse-racing industry, got prosecuted for tax evasion (he got three years in jail) collections from the racing industry went through the roof.

exactly....the indirect benefit may be more than the direct benefits.....popular to beat up on the IRS but for the average American investing less in the IRS iwll cost them more somewhere down the road...whether it be higher tax rates or reduced benefits.