Being Patient with the IRS

         After having a partial Federal Government Shutdown that lasted for over 30 days, there was a lot of work that had piled up on many desks in the IRS. By some counts there were over 5 million pieces of mail that needed to be processed by employees when they came back to work. On top of that, their first day was the beginning of the most complicated Tax Season in recent history.

          Some of this correspondence is related to audits, amended Tax Returns and criminal cases from last year. In addition, there is an unprecedented 1 hour and 30-minute wait time to talk to an IRS agent on the phone. All these employees are struggling to deal with current issues and past assignments that were neglected because of the Shutdown. The response may seem slow, but they are doing their best. Many factors have combined to make this one of the mist unusual Tax Seasons in history. If we all cooperate, we can get through it together.

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