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Star Man posted:Whose fuckin idea was that? Please don't tell me it was Obama's. I'm too new to know the actual answer to that. Consolidation started in 2003 under Dubya. You'll find that using federal employees as a punching bag in the interest of "efficiency" is a thoroughly bipartisan affair.
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Apr 16, 2024 00:02
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Alucard posted:Consolidation started in 2003 under Dubya. You'll find that using federal employees as a punching bag in the interest of "efficiency" is a thoroughly bipartisan affair. I'm familiar with both sides of the aisle taking a big ol' poo poo on public servants. I just wanted a name to hitch things to.
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Apr 16, 2024 00:05
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People still submit paper returns?... Of course they do My agency has gone all digital with our public facing stuff, but there are still old attorneys and randos who like to mail us stacks of paper, or worse, hand deliver them in binders. Then we get to dismantle, scan, and upload that garbage
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Apr 16, 2024 03:33
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There are still tons of paper returns, yeah, between people who get electronic returns rejected for various reasons, people who aren't aware of free e-filing options and self-prepare on paper to avoid paying for software, people without computer skills or access, people who just prefer it... a big part of the issue is that the office closures presupposed a much larger decrease in paper filing than has actually happened.
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Apr 16, 2024 03:36
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Thesaurus posted:People still submit paper returns?... Of course they do There are a lot of 1099 situations that are really simple to put on a paper form but cost absurd amounts of money to enter into software. One year I had about $2 in qualified dividends that cost minimum $80 to enter into any electronic filing software. I'm not paying you 80 loving dollars to fill out an extra schedule that works out to a rounding error. Until we let people put in their returns for free there will always be edge cases that cause paper filing.
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Apr 16, 2024 04:20
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Leviathan Song posted:There are a lot of 1099 situations that are really simple to put on a paper form but cost absurd amounts of money to enter into software. One year I had about $2 in qualified dividends that cost minimum $80 to enter into any electronic filing software. I'm not paying you 80 loving dollars to fill out an extra schedule that works out to a rounding error. Until we let people put in their returns for free there will always be edge cases that cause paper filing. Yuuuuup did the same thing a couple years ago, had a handful of dollars on a 1099 or something and was insanely expensive to efile fed and state, but only a few dollars to print and mail.
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Apr 16, 2024 04:35
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I get invited to presentations about Robotic Process Automation all the time, which I’ve been told was somehow supposed to replace all of the paper return processing. No one has been able to sufficiently describe how that was supposed to happen, though. I have walked through the Ogden campus during peak paper return input season. You can feel the will to live being sucked out of every employee there.
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Apr 16, 2024 13:57
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Other reasons for filing paper returns is if someone ripped off your information and filed an electronic return ahead of you. The system rejects any further attempts to file electronically if a taxpayer identification number is already hitched to an accepted paper or electronic tax return as a security feature. Because so much of my job is telling poor black and brown single mothers their refund is frozen for additional review or other problems, one common problem preventing someone from claiming their dependents on their return is one or more kids were claimed on another return. Usually it's by the other parent. A common call at the beginning of filing season is single parents calling to get an IP PIN to prevent the other parent from claiming the kids on their return, which we strongly discourage on the phones because you're stuck with it for life. Then those same people constantly call in requesting IP PIN letters because they move constantly or we don't have a good address and you can't opt-in or retrieve your IP PIN online when you're a kid.
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Apr 16, 2024 15:28
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I worked at one of my office's Taxpayer Experience Days and that was like 90% of the people who came in. We filed a ton of paper returns that day.
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Apr 16, 2024 21:30
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Another reason to paper file (speaking as a tax preparer) is for people filing for what’s called an ITIN. People who are here on work visas have spouses and kids who aren’t eligible for Social Security numbers, so to claim them on a return (or if you’re a foreigner who doesn’t even live in the US but needs to file tax return stuff on businesses here), you have to apply for a Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, from the IRS. As IRS efile can’t handle a lack of a number, and generally you need to show you get an ITIN by filing a return with the person on it, those all get mailed in. I specialize in those, so I’m pretty frequently trudging over to the post office with returns. Add in various other issues like the ones mentioned and various oddities (had one person whose Arkansas return I think kept rejecting because he had like five state returns and for some reason AK didn’t like that, so mail it was), and even though mostly it’s efile these days we break out the envelopes and address slips more than you’d think.
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Apr 16, 2024 22:47
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Yeah, I work at the center that processes ITIN requests, and that's all paper returns and application materials. (I think that department barely uses IDRS, even, which feels weird to me, but everywhere has their own processes.)
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Apr 16, 2024 23:06
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Antivehicular posted:Yeah, I work at the center that processes ITIN requests, and that's all paper returns and application materials. (I think that department barely uses IDRS, even, which feels weird to me, but everywhere has their own processes.) Sounds like heaven, but I’m guessing it’s hell.
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Apr 17, 2024 02:02
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Discendo Vox posted:Sounds like heaven, but I’m guessing it’s hell. We had a woman transfer from the ITIN processing department to the call center once. I think she lasted like two days after training? Phones are not for the faint of heart. Or the too strong of heart. Actually no heart at all is probably best.
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Apr 17, 2024 02:10
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Discendo Vox posted:Sounds like heaven, but I’m guessing it’s hell. He just plays RTS all day instead.
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Apr 17, 2024 02:35
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I just meant the no IDRS part.
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Apr 17, 2024 03:15
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IIRC they use some janky Windows 3.0 looking software.
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Apr 17, 2024 05:40
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sullat posted:IIRC they use some janky Windows 3.0 looking software. Oh that’s not too abnormal, I’m blanking on the name but the TCOs had it too, and it was used as much as “pure” (heavily mediated, connection-tunneled) IDRS. It’s a layer of tech built atop a layer of tech built atop IDRS. Crashes if you tried to use any kind of keyboard shortcuts or the copy and paste functions….
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Apr 17, 2024 06:09
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How in depth are yalls “im sick” emails beyond “I don’t feel good and I’m using 8 hours of sick leave today”? That’s what I said yesterday, basically… I find myself wondering if my new temporary supervisor particularly cares if I’m food poisoned or if being “sick” is fine as day 2 approaches
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Apr 17, 2024 12:01
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wolfs posted:How in depth are yalls “im sick” emails beyond “I don’t feel good and I’m using 8 hours of sick leave today”? That’s what I said yesterday, basically… Entirely dependent on the personal relationship with the supervisor. I don't feel the need to disclose beyond "I need to use sick leave today".
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Apr 17, 2024 12:31
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wolfs posted:How in depth are yalls “im sick” emails beyond “I don’t feel good and I’m using 8 hours of sick leave today”? That’s what I said yesterday, basically… "Taking sick leave today" or just leave and not mentioning what leave I am taking. Or just putting the request in DAI if it's not the same day. That has been the case for the last 2 agencies and like 3 supervisors I've had. But prior to that being a LEO.... Not so much.
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Apr 17, 2024 12:41
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No one really wants to hear the details about the latest stomach bug you picked up, just stick with "out sick/not feeling well" imo. I had a couple people in my last office that felt like they had to explain on the phone, at length, the depths and severity of every one of their various ailments and it's just like, buddy, no one needs to know that, just tell me you're gonna be out and out the time on your timesheet.
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Apr 17, 2024 13:58
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I say exactly as much as I need to, but I call because I have brain damage and work in-office every day by choice: "HI, it's [first name, last name], and my phone number is [phone number]. I am not feeling well and will not be coming in. I am requesting eight hours of sick leave and cancelling overtime. I will call you tomorrow if I need any additional time off."
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Apr 17, 2024 14:30
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GD_American posted:Entirely dependent on the personal relationship with the supervisor. I don't feel the need to disclose beyond "I need to use sick leave today". This. Supervisors have no need to know the why of sick leave, even if it's for extended time.
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Apr 17, 2024 15:17
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They don't need to know reasons, but there is agency policy in a doctor's note for sick leave over a certain amount of time. The note doesn't have to say what's going on, just that you are to remain home for a certain amount of days. Could be used for post surgical recovery as well. Always use sick whenever you can. It's worth more as days off rather than added to the end of your career. I took sick as I was getting out and lost a month of service. That time off was worth more than the 1/12th of 1% of pension I lost.
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Apr 17, 2024 15:35
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Discendo Vox posted:Oh that’s not too abnormal, I’m blanking on the name but the TCOs had it too, and it was used as much as “pure” (heavily mediated, connection-tunneled) IDRS. It’s a layer of tech built atop a layer of tech built atop IDRS. Crashes if you tried to use any kind of keyboard shortcuts or the copy and paste functions…. I think you’re talking about IAT. It’s supposed to make IDRS more readable but has so many issues of its own.
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Apr 17, 2024 16:36
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LyonsLions posted:I think you’re talking about IAT. It’s supposed to make IDRS more readable but has so many issues of its own. I believe that’s correct, though there was a whole stack of such craft sitting atop the core database.
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Apr 17, 2024 17:40
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My team lead told me the reason notice CP 05 and letter LTR 4464C haven't been updated to the "temporary" extended timeframes from sixty days to one hundred twenty days because it takes a year to update the text of letters and notices. If this is really a problem of updating IDRS, I'm going to start crying. I swear our call volume would drop by half if whoever handles these things would just change that one thing to match the IRM. Same with updating the Where's My Amended Return tool to the "temporary" twenty-week timeframe. This is what happens when this poo poo is decided by people who have never worked phones.
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Apr 17, 2024 22:09
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wolfs posted:How in depth are yalls “im sick” emails beyond “I don’t feel good and I’m using 8 hours of sick leave today”? That’s what I said yesterday, basically… I use my work phone to take photos of the toilet bowl, gotta document everything and cc it to a top 1% exec to make it a NARA record
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Apr 18, 2024 00:03
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Star Man posted:My team lead told me the reason notice CP 05 and letter LTR 4464C haven't been updated to the "temporary" extended timeframes from sixty days to one hundred twenty days because it takes a year to update the text of letters and notices. If this is really a problem of updating IDRS, I'm going to start crying. I don't think that's actually true, they just don't care enough to bother doing it. When people complained about the notices being hard to understand I always used to tell them, "a highly paid team of lawyers, bureaucrats and managers say otherwise and who are we to disagree?"
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Apr 18, 2024 00:58
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I'd guess the issue there is with the Paperwork Reduction Act and OIRA review, which is actually a nightmare.
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Apr 18, 2024 01:11
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Antivehicular posted:Yeah, I work at the center that processes ITIN requests, and that's all paper returns and application materials. (I think that department barely uses IDRS, even, which feels weird to me, but everywhere has their own processes.) Well, thanks for whatever you guys did that seems to have the applications processing faster now; has been a great relief to me dealing with clients breathing down my neck for the number/refund. sullat posted:I don't think that's actually true, they just don't care enough to bother doing it. When people complained about the notices being hard to understand I always used to tell them, "a highly paid team of lawyers, bureaucrats and managers say otherwise and who are we to disagree?" God knows I spend enough time trying to clarify them for people, all of whom jump to immediate panic mode when they see a letter for any reason. One reason I hammer home to the ITIN people they should expect a letter as a result of the application. Doesn't help some of the scammers are apparently getting more clever with fakes; had one nasty one recently that would have looked pretty realistic apart from saying "your tax year 2024 refund" in there. Never thought I'd be happy nobody else can figure out the difference between tax year and the year the return is filed.
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Apr 18, 2024 04:24
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MadDogMike posted:Never thought I'd be happy nobody else can figure out the difference between tax year and the year the return is filed. I suppose now is a bad time to tell you that people making payments to the wrong year are calling about their mistake and our command code for transferring payments across tax periods and accounts is indefinitely down.
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Apr 18, 2024 07:04
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First call of the day and I've got someone telling me they would have gotten their refund faster if they were an immigrant or gay or trans. I should have taken an additional day of sick leave.
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Apr 18, 2024 13:08
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I dunno, I'm trans and got my refund in a week flat, maybe they should go try their local Planned Parenthood. (granted I'm also a former federal accountant with an extremely simple return, but they don't need to know that part) More seriously, good luck out there, I know I couldn't deal with that
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Apr 18, 2024 13:18
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Agree, as a gay I got my refund in about a week. It's joever for the straights. In actual news, I interviewed last week for a 12 Social Work position and really hope it comes through. Not only for the pay bump but for getting me away from my nice but barely competent supervisor
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Apr 18, 2024 14:00
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Star Man posted:First call of the day and I've got someone telling me they would have gotten their refund faster if they were an immigrant or gay or trans. Only some get to the top of the pile, others are on bottom.
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Apr 18, 2024 14:11
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The issue was their tax return is held up in errors processing because of non-refundable tax credits claimed on the return. From what I've been told, the automated processing of electronic returns causes an error when the Residential Energy Credit is claimed alongside the Child Tax Credit (and possibly others). So the credits have to be calculated by hand, and there are over three hundred million people in this country filing tax returns all at once. And I do explain that issue to the taxpayer and tell them I will write a referral to the (overworked and overextended) service center to deal with the issue because the normal processing timeframe has expired. But no, it's because of gay people being prioritized or whatever reason they make up.
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Apr 18, 2024 15:17
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