The states are getting worse and worse.
There is an interdependency between states and their constituents which is increasingly grossly misconstrued. State taxing authorities give no thought whatsoever that their taxpayers are the source of their operations and jobs. There is no appreciation for the huge amount of administrative time being spent by individuals and businesses in particular. In recent years the problems of a down economy and a controlling IT presence are making it worse.
I have spoken frequently of the states trying to cram electronic filing requirements down the throats of their life-giving taxpayers. In association with e-file requirements and e-pay requirements there is the emergence of gatekeeping features not directly germane to any of this, but instead to provide the states other convenient information which they already have but don't want to take the time to research. Never mind the idea of how much taxpayers and preparers have to research just to make them happy.
Most of these miserable experiences for me come with Tennessee and Alabama, for which all of the foregoing is true. Another recent incident with Louisiana comes to mind where their state has cut back on their telephone support. When this happened, the telephone lines are backlogged, of course. The bandwidth of the extra telephone capacity to accommodate this backlog is also costing the state money, so they have a "wonderful" feature where you can punch a telephone menu and the state will call you back to save you having to hold the line. The state tells you they are providing this feature for "your convenience", but this is BS because they don't really care about your call and want to clear their telephone lines and cut expense back further.
If you choose the callback feature, they will not call you back. If you stay on the line, they will repeat this feature several times and then cut you off.
The only way I have found to effectively get their attention is to simply not pay them what they think you owe. Their collection departments are fully staffed and are for some reason interested in hearing from you.
There is an interdependency between states and their constituents which is increasingly grossly misconstrued. State taxing authorities give no thought whatsoever that their taxpayers are the source of their operations and jobs. There is no appreciation for the huge amount of administrative time being spent by individuals and businesses in particular. In recent years the problems of a down economy and a controlling IT presence are making it worse.
I have spoken frequently of the states trying to cram electronic filing requirements down the throats of their life-giving taxpayers. In association with e-file requirements and e-pay requirements there is the emergence of gatekeeping features not directly germane to any of this, but instead to provide the states other convenient information which they already have but don't want to take the time to research. Never mind the idea of how much taxpayers and preparers have to research just to make them happy.
Most of these miserable experiences for me come with Tennessee and Alabama, for which all of the foregoing is true. Another recent incident with Louisiana comes to mind where their state has cut back on their telephone support. When this happened, the telephone lines are backlogged, of course. The bandwidth of the extra telephone capacity to accommodate this backlog is also costing the state money, so they have a "wonderful" feature where you can punch a telephone menu and the state will call you back to save you having to hold the line. The state tells you they are providing this feature for "your convenience", but this is BS because they don't really care about your call and want to clear their telephone lines and cut expense back further.
If you choose the callback feature, they will not call you back. If you stay on the line, they will repeat this feature several times and then cut you off.
The only way I have found to effectively get their attention is to simply not pay them what they think you owe. Their collection departments are fully staffed and are for some reason interested in hearing from you.
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