Credit Where Due - Thank You Mr Walters at IRS

[JohnH]

A client walked into my office this morning with a question about an unresolved matter with IRS, which was causing a refund to be held up for several weeks. So we called IRS and got a Mr Walters on the phone in about 15 min. He was very pleasant, had me put the client on the line to verify he was OK with our doing this on speakerphone (to protect his privacy) before switching over.

After the preliminaries, Mr Walters took all the time required to look into the matter, discover where the bottleneck was, and arrange to have the refund released. Nice way to start out a Monday with a pleasant IRS representative and my client on his way with a smile on his face. My client even told Mr Walters that he was hoping the call was recorded so there would be a record of how nice he had been to a taxpayer this morning.

It has been a good day, thanks in part to Mr Walters at IRS.

[buzzardbreath]

The Good Folks Are There

There are good folks working for the IRS - in fact, I would say many more than their image portrays.
Many more of them would be good to work with, except for the fact that their raises and bonuses
depend entirely on how much money they can collect.

Some of the most helpful people have their hands tied. ...not authorized for such and such...unable
to find submitted information... computer systems not talking to each other, etc. etc.

Sometimes clients with no defensible position become irate with these people, and the system itself.
Others have reasonable positions (such as receipts from charity), but unfair draconian regulations
and even court decisions create justifiable outrage.

[S T]

JohnH - I am so glad you had a good Monday! - Always helps the week in "positive attitudes"

I have to say I have been "blessed" with connecting with the "right, understanding person at IRS" to solve a problem. Main criteria, is what that IRS rep says when I make the first phone call, if not right, I just say thank you very much, and call back to achieve another dialogue.

There are a lot of good people at the IRS call centers, and more often than not, I have had the "pleasure" of talking with them to achieve a solution to the Taxpayer's problem.

I treat those people the same respect, that I would want to be treated! How are you today!, Can you assist me! What is the solution!, and of course at the end of the conversation - "I hope you have a wonderful day or what is left of the rest of the week! " and "thank you so much for assisting with my issue"

My experience is there is nothing achieved by "belligerence or being irate"

Happy week!

Sandy

[Gretel]

Thank you so much for posting, John. Most spoken/written things are complaints about one thing or the other. People tend to forget to share good experiences.

[Roberts]

I had an issue one time where the new client reported on their W-2 that SS holdings were subject to 100% of income, ignoring the income limit. They had deducted and paid everything correctly, the W-2 was wrong. So, they received a bill for taxes owed. Could see the problem immediately.

First call, IRS lady says they owe the bill and basically hangs up.

Second time I call another lady spends <2 minutes looking at it, says she sees the problem, I'm on the phone 2 more minutes and the entire mess is cleared up - nothing else needs to be done.

Same very similar issue recently. Client sent in their W-2 properly along with all other forms but somehow the IRS failed to scan or whatever a W-2. The IRS sent a notice that they owed a large tax bill for the missing money - something like $6,000. Call the IRS and tell them the problem, they say mail everything in showing the original W-2 and they'd clear it up. They did. I spent over a hour on hold, <10 minutes of work.