Practitioner Priority Service

[Kram BergGold]

What we can do on the phone with the PPS is greatly curtailed. Every year a number of clients can not seem to figure out how much they have paid for their estimated taxes. I used PPS to get this info. What do you see as our options now that PPS won't give us that info.

[mastertaxguy]

1. Charge more for our time: not our fault IRS Has cut back on PPS. Charge for the time while on hold as part of the call.
2. Use e-services to get transcripts and such. Demand more information from the taxpayer/client.
3. Be patient with the Service.
4. I have used PPS three times this week (and on hold now at 5:21 pm. EST) without a lot of hassle.
5. Use the speaker on the phone and move around getting other things done while on hold.
6. Turn down the volume on the speaker phone so as not to have to listen to the "wonderful" music while on hold.
7. Call at 7:00 a.m. EST or near the end of the work day.
8. Do not take on hopelessly complex situations.
9. Ask the PPP Person what they recommend be done to resolve your taxpayer's problem.

[taxmandan]

Wait for it.....

I stopped by the local IRS office to pickup some wage transcripts earlier this week, having given up on waiting on hold with PPS and the nice gal said theIRS is planning to roll out an on-line transcript service in March. It's supposed to work like the "Where's my refund" page and give immediate gratification, er, access to all those things we need to fix our clients problems. In IRS-speak that means probably in October it's hit the website and we can beta test it then. Unknown what kind of personal information will be required to get into someone's account, hope it's not last years' AGI (non-filers don't seem to have one).

[ATSMAN]

If all you are looking for is transcripts or record of account and the taxpayer is in your office try this:

Irs.gov, individuals, Get transcript. You can do all that and print a pdf in 10 minutes.

[Burke]

It's supposed to work like the "Where's my refund" page and give immediate gratification,

Right, which isn't working at all right now. Have been unable to get into it for the last two weeks. Is this because of the IRS, system inability to process 2013 returns?

[ATSMAN]

It is working sporadic. I was able to log in!

[WhiteOleander]

I was not aware that PPS would no longer give us the estimated payments paid by the taxpayer. Even with the taxpayer present to verify their identity.

I went to the online transcript and created a personal account to get my transcript. It is very involved and the client must have an email. Most of my elderly clients don't have an email. I logged into my account. Where would any estimated payments I made for 2013 show up? I could not find where that would be reported.

[ATSMAN]

Did you download record of account?

I believe credits are posted on that screen.

[WhiteOleander]

It shows Record of Account for 2013 as N/A. So, if it will not be available for 2013, it will be of no help to us.

[ATSMAN]

I am wondering if the 2013 N/A becomes active as soon as the IRS system logs a return filed or if at some point in time it would be active if there are 2013 transactions.

In my practice almost all the time I had to pull a transcript was for a prior year.

[Burke]

2013 is a prior year. And the one we would be most interested in.

[Burke]

2013 is a prior year. And the one we would be most interested in. I am wondering if all their systems are screwed up due to delay in getting 2013 returns online for acceptance.

[WhiteOleander]

Well, I was understanding that we could get the estimated payments made by the taxpayer for 2013. Many of my elderly clients can't remember what they sent. This would be so much easier than trying to call the IRS or their many banks trying to get the info.

[taxea]

I am sure the client didn't make cash estimates. This is their responsibility. Have them go through their bank/credit card statements for the year.