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Day in the Work Life: Taxpayer advocate
Photo of Nina Olson, National Taxpayer Advocate.
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I have an issue perhaps you can help me with... I had a refund that was being held up because I owed a debt and my husband owed a debt. I knew the full refund was mine, but we wanted to pay BOTH of the debts off so instead of filling out the form we were sent we just checked the box to pay them both.
Then I called to verify that the form had been received. It was at that time that I was told there was ANOTHER debt that my husband had. I explained that I checked the box and did not want to pay additional debts out of that. They confirmed to me that I would receive another form in the mail to fill out for the Friend of the Court debt.
After a couple weeks, I wrote them again asking where the form was and I was told this time that they were not going to mail another form....
When I checked that box, I was under the impression I was only paying the 2 debts like I was told.... Now, I get a letter stating that they used the entire refund to pay HIS debt...... NONE of the refund was even his...
I called today about 35 times before finally getting through and I was told that I basically lost the chance to get the refund. According to the letter, you are required to hold the refund for 28 days from the date of the letter (March 12, 2010). I was told a supervisor would contact me but I never actually heard from anyone. Why was I not told about the 3rd debt before the form was sent to me and if there was a 3rd debt, why am I not allowed the opportunity to fill out a form to split the income...? I need to know who I need to talk to in order to get my refund...
Please I just want to get my refund.
Thank you.
Our daughter died of cancer on April 2005. She had neurofibromotosis all of her life. We lived for 26 years with a daughter (out of five)that was ignored and made fun of by her peers.Sarah was diagnosed about a year before she died. She was in terrible pain for five months. During this period, and after we were devastated for three years. We were not in the place mentally to gather the materials and file our tax returns. I paid the IRS significant amounts of money during that period. Everything is file now. I sent a letter to the IRS about Sarah's death and our inability to file hoping to get some relief from the penalties. I just received a letter from them saying our "excuse" was not "good" enough to get any relief. Please help.3176978822
Sure Ms. Olson has talked about the IRS's shortcomings, ruffled a few feathers, and wrote some tough reports. Unfortunately, Ms. Olson has not been able to get very much accomplished in her seven years on the job other then create a high employee turnover rate. She tried to simplify the tax code by creating a standard definition of a child. When all was said and done, she only made matters worse. So much worse, the law had to be amended.
Ms. Olson also destroyed the very program in the IRS that was set up to assist taxpayers. Before Ms. Olson, if you needed help with a tax problem that was not dealt with satisfactorily through normal channels the IRS would transfer your case over to a group that had the experience in your particular issue and the authority to fix your problem on the spot. Ms. Olson has forsaken this logic. Now if you need help and your case is transferred over to her program it will most likely be assigned to someone that is not experienced or even properly trained to assist you. Moreover, even if the employee understands your situation they will not be able to fix it. They will have to turn around and request the IRS to fix it. Not only is this a poor way to assist taxpayers it also costs taxpayers more money.
The Taxpayer Advocate's office has an important role of advocating for all taxpayers. While Ms. Olson does an adequate job of this, she does not advocate very well for the individual taxpayer who comes into her office for assistance. For that reason, her employees that work with taxpayers should be reassigned back to the IRS where they will be better trained and better able to quickly assist taxpayers in their moment of need.
Thank you for showing focus on the Tax Payer Advocate. They are all heros in my book.
The general public doesn't quite understand how they can call a branch of the Government who is presently billing them for $38,000.00 and threatening to remove them and/or their property.
Many think their only recourse is to hire expensive tax attorneys, and the average person cannot afford that easily.
All you need is a qualified emergency within guidelines established. There may be the need for the taxpayer to hire a tax professional at some point, but when a Tax Payer has a 911. The Tax Payer Advocates Office is where you go.
The IRS deserves good press now and then. This is one branch of the IRS that are astounding in the way they serve Tax Payers one to one.
