IRS and their faulty fax lines

[AZ-Tax]

I am on the line with an IRS agent today trying to fax in an 8821. I had to try 4 different fax numbers (each one multiple times) before I got one to work and then the one that worked went busy on me. What should have taken 30 mins took nearly 1 -1/2 hours.

[FEDUKE404]

Just the fax, jack

It's too bad the IRS still relies upon last century's/milennium's fax (can you say "busy signal" ??) instead of a more realistic approach using a scanned document submitted via email.

Of course, you can always use snail mail and then move on to some more productive use of your time....

But OTOH, if billable hours are in the mix, then it's easy $$ for you!

FE

[appelman]

I haven't had this particular problem.

But you might want to consider a service like Trust Fax. They let you fax from your computer through their web site and presumably will keep trying until they get through, while you may go on to other things.

The problem I've had in recent times is that it can take the IRS quite a while to digest the faxes they do receive.

I believe the IRS is leery of unsecured e-mail for sensitive information. An examiner recently told me that he will receive e-mail, but will not send anything back with taxpayer information.

[AZ-Tax]

Do other things...

I have tried the route before of leaving my fax machine to retry, retry etc. and even if it gets through eventually, I will not know if or how ong its going to take to process the 8821 I just faxed. Having the IRS on the phone when my fax finally makes it through so the IRS can physically go pick it up and give me authorization to see my clients tax return right then is there saves me immensely with my time. Most of the time their fax machines are working properly.

[taxea]

I have never had a problem getting a fax through with the number provided by the agent I am on the phone with. I can't imagine the agent staying on the line for 1 1/2 hours while you are trying to fax something to him/her.

[kpangelinan]

But you might want to consider a service like Trust Fax. They let you fax from your computer through their web site and presumably will keep trying until they get through, while you may go on to other things.

The problem I've had in recent times is that it can take the IRS quite a while to digest the faxes they do receive.

I believe the IRS is leery of unsecured e-mail for sensitive information. An examiner recently told me that he will receive e-mail, but will not send anything back with taxpayer information.

There are a lot of companies out there now that offer efax for not a lot of money, to me anyways. We use J2 and RingCentral and have been working great for years.....especially when on the phone with an RO, so I don't have to go to the fax machine or try to have my secretary do it. I love it and it's well worth it....we get confirmation via email and you can attach pdf's to fax. Like saving a tax return in pdf form, then faxing it from your computer....there's no printing involved at all. Fax confirmation is saved in client folder on my computer.

I have tried the route before of leaving my fax machine to retry, retry etc. and even if it gets through eventually, I will not know if or how ong its going to take to process the 8821 I just faxed. Having the IRS on the phone when my fax finally makes it through so the IRS can physically go pick it up and give me authorization to see my clients tax return right then is there saves me immensely with my time. Most of the time their fax machines are working properly.

If you need to talk to them immediately and have just received the 8821, then this is the only way....those times are rare for me...usually, I have them sign my POA's, fax them in, and it's in the system consistently within 1-2 weeks when I'm ready to make the call.

If you have one of the previous 3 years tax returns, eservices will allow you to immediately process a POA.

I have never had a problem getting a fax through with the number provided by the agent I am on the phone with. I can't imagine the agent staying on the line for 1 1/2 hours while you are trying to fax something to him/her.

I've had this happen many times......

[oceanlovin'ea]

internet fax service

I use myfax.com as my fax service right now. It is only $10.00 a month. Since I don't send many faxes, I thought this would be the best for me.
You send it as an email to the fax number@myfax.com. Then it is sent to the person you are faxing as a regular fax. People fax you at your regular fax number and it comes to your email box.
IRS has not had a problem faxing to me since they are just using my fax number.
BUT
the one thing I don't like about it is the delay time. Here is the scenario:
I call IRS and wait for an agent to answer.
Finally get a person on the phone and tell them I will fax POA to them.
They give me the number.
I have email ready and POA attached so I just add the fax number and send.
Then WAIT and WAIT.
I tell the agent on the phone that I use myfax.com and it takes around 3 minutes for a fax to go through. Some wait patiently..others don't..
Make small talk....how's the weather there? etc for around 3 minutes.
You get acknowledgement via email when it is sent successfully. so you can say to them that it has gone through and they can get the fax from the machine.

One week they were updating something and it took 30 minutes for a fax to go through. I had an extremely patient person that day.

So now I am trying to figure out a better method. I HATE to pay the phone company $35 a month to have a dedicated fax line.
Anyone know anything about Magic Jack for $19.95 a month??

Linda, EA

[kpangelinan]

I use myfax.com as my fax service right now. It is only $10.00 a month. Since I don't send many faxes, I thought this would be the best for me.
You send it as an email to the fax number@myfax.com. Then it is sent to the person you are faxing as a regular fax. People fax you at your regular fax number and it comes to your email box.
IRS has not had a problem faxing to me since they are just using my fax number.
BUT
the one thing I don't like about it is the delay time. Here is the scenario:
I call IRS and wait for an agent to answer.
Finally get a person on the phone and tell them I will fax POA to them.
They give me the number.
I have email ready and POA attached so I just add the fax number and send.
Then WAIT and WAIT.
I tell the agent on the phone that I use myfax.com and it takes around 3 minutes for a fax to go through. Some wait patiently..others don't..
Make small talk....how's the weather there? etc for around 3 minutes.
You get acknowledgement via email when it is sent successfully. so you can say to them that it has gone through and they can get the fax from the machine.

One week they were updating something and it took 30 minutes for a fax to go through. I had an extremely patient person that day.

So now I am trying to figure out a better method. I HATE to pay the phone company $35 a month to have a dedicated fax line.
Anyone know anything about Magic Jack for $19.95 a month??

Linda, EA

Linda, that hasn't been my experience with ringcentral or J2 over the years.....I've faxed pages to my office to test and it sends it within seconds of hitting the send button. I don't send anything to an email to send, but through a website server...I wonder if that's the difference...the only time I use the email is if I'm on the road and need to use my Blackberry.

I had faxed over 81 pages of a financial disclosure when attempting to lift a levy and she received the entire thing in less than 5 minutes.

[oceanlovin'ea]

Ring Central

I just looked at their website. Looks interesting. I might try that. Can I keep my same fax number?
Thanks for the tip.

Linda, EA

[kpangelinan]

I just looked at their website. Looks interesting. I might try that. Can I keep my same fax number?
Thanks for the tip.

Linda, EA

I'm pretty sure you can.

[kpangelinan]

I just looked at their website. Looks interesting. I might try that. Can I keep my same fax number?
Thanks for the tip.

Linda, EA

Ringcentral is better price wise and the service is just as good if not better....J2 is one of the pioneers in the efax department and I started with them over 10 years ago.

[FEDUKE404]

Relevant question

I have noted many folks on these boards are adamant about always using a fax and never using emails to send certain tax information.

With that in mind, how do you get around the fact that for services like myfax.com or Ring Central you ARE apparently sending material through the internet and/or using emails? The mere fact that the person on the other end eventually receives a fax does not alter the fact that (apparently) the material left your computer either through a web page or via an outgoing email.

Well.....I thought it was a good question!

FE

[kpangelinan]

I have noted many folks on these boards are adamant about always using a fax and never using emails to send certain tax information.

With that in mind, how do you get around the fact that for services like myfax.com or Ring Central you ARE apparently sending material through the internet and/or using emails? The mere fact that the person on the other end eventually receives a fax does not alter the fact that (apparently) the material left your computer either through a web page or via an outgoing email.

Well.....I thought it was a good question!

FE

I, for one, have never been concerned nor had an issue with emailing. I have revenue officers today that I communicate with exclusively via email, with permission from their managers of course. We send official tax documents via scans, pdf attachments, word doc attachments, etc. and all through email with no problem.

I've heard of the "secure" arguments and like I said, I haven't had an issue. For those that have this "secure" issue of sending things via email, don't use this service.

[Gary2]

There's a difference between sending via the internet and sending via e-mail (which is just one way of sending via the internet).

By current standards, e-mail is inherently insecure. There are some services that require their users to fetch their mail via secure connections. However, when it comes to sending e-mail, the underlying protocols cannot, as a practical matter, require that all of the steps along the way are secure. So it's like saying that the mailbox in front of your house for delivery is secure, but the mailbox in front of the post office for mailing letters isn't. (Yes, reality is the other way around for those mailboxes.)

There's a mixture of risk and perception at play. It takes much less technical skill to swipe a letter from a physical mailbox, steam it open, copy the SSN, reseal it and put it back than it does to intercept the bits traveling between the irs.gov server and some yahoo.com server, even if the latter is an unencrypted connection. But the former is considered acceptable security while the latter is not. Sometimes the reason for not sending things by e-mail isn't because of the risk, but because you don't want to be perceived as being either ignorant or indifferent with regard to computer security.

[FEDUKE404]

Unnecessary roadblocks

I, for one, have never been concerned nor had an issue with emailing. I have revenue officers today that I communicate with exclusively via email, with permission from their managers of course. We send official tax documents via scans, pdf attachments, word doc attachments, etc. and all through email with no problem. I have noted, however, that in many instances such information exchanges are "one-way" streets where the tax folks will accept information but will likely not initiate any such information transfers except for perhaps an "I got your information" email. Then we play telephone tag or wait for the snail mail...

I've heard of the "secure" arguments and like I said, I haven't had an issue. For those that have this "secure" issue of sending things via email, don't use this service.

My viewpoint is basically the same as yours. As an example, just last week I exchanged some documents/tax info/etc via email with my state's revenue folks. Both PDF files and JPG (scanned items) were sent as email attachments to the auditor. I have noted that a sort of "one-way" street may exist with the government folks, who will generally accept incoming stuff but rarely send anything (other than a "got your email" response).

I do have a handful of clients who work with a major financial institution, and they routinely send me emails with scans of virtually every tax document imaginable included. The emails are encrypted from their end (a simple one-time setup for me, with a password/security question to view) but everything then can easily be accessed by me. I can actually send stuff back to them, using "reply," that activates the same encryption process.

As for the comment by Gary2 ("e-mail is inherently insecure"), that would seem to run counter to the folks who espouse online services such as myfax.com. There the outgoing "fax" is actually first sent via an email (18005551234@myfax.com from their web site) to computers unknown which then create the fax for the recipient. For my 2¢ worth, I see very little difference between just sending the same email (and attachments) directly to the intended person. Perhaps I am missing something.

Some board members, names forgotten, have also cited various IRS regulations that would effectively close down ANY email type activity for a certified PTIN-able tax person. They espouse nothing is acceptible except for certified mail, UPS/FedEx, or fax transmissions.

Of course, I also remember when my boss at H&R Block would not allow a computer in the office......

FE