Remember those enormous checks we sent into the IRS year after year? Huge, debilitating checks that provided funds for our government that they continue to use up trying to fight the cold war. With fleets of nuclear subs and gaggles of unstealthy stealth fighter jets. The checks my government is using so my "president" can play golf more frequently than Arnold Palmer and Ben Crenshaw's life time rounds combined. Checks used to pay for all sorts of misguided nonsense!
I never complained until today. this was the day I decided to look and see where my Crisis/Disaster/End of the World check for $2,400 was hiding... (well, not actually a check but hopefully a direct deposit...).
Apparently IRS widget made expressly for this kind of information has been crashing non-stop since early this morning. Par for the course. I'll try a nine iron...
But here's the insight I gained today.... All the government reports about the one time "relief" payment suggest that if you have filed your 2018 and 2019 tax returns, and have given the IRS your bank information to complete those returns, you need do nothing more and as quickly as you can putt a six incher you'd have the cash in your accounts. Hole in one. It's supposed to be....automatic.
But here's the rub that I've discovered. If you've never gotten a refund from the IRS and all the money has flowed in one direction (to them) they won't/can't use the banking information you gave them for your payments to them to get this one time payment into your account. Even if it's the same account. No. You have to go online and give them your banking information for this payment all over again.
And the only way to do so it through the new site widget. Which is broken. But otherwise you can wait with all the other folks for a check to hit your mail box in August --- if we decide to continue the national postal service. Enter information into the site! But the site is broken. It's like being in an endless sand trap with no wedges, only woods.
Who actually gets refunds? I've never gotten a refund. I wouldn't know what they look like. Apparently we're one of the few households where the IRS money only flows in one direction.
If I sound angry it's because all of this is such a waste of time and energy. And it's not a service my CPA or attorney is offering to do for me.
But this particular rant is mostly intended as a public service announcement to our readers: If you pay taxes with direct EFTs (electronic fund transfers) from your bank account don't depend on the IRS reciprocating automatically and depositing your money there. You must give them your account information to get money back from them.
But there's this Nigerian man who offered to help if I could just send him all my banking information.....
We're from the government and we're here to help ...
ReplyDeleteWhile states dealing with virus outbreaks, such as New York, plea for any and all qualified medical professionals to offer assistance, other support systems also require specialized expertise. Over the weekend, New Jersey governor Phil Murphy put out an open call for tech experts to help balance the load placed on the state’s unemployment system, which runs on a legacy programming language called COBOL.
“We have systems that are 40-plus years old,” the governor said at a press conference. “There’ll be lots of postmortems, and one of them will be how the heck did we get here?, when we literally needed COBOL programmers.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/what-is-cobol-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-the-coronavirus.html
New Jersey's annual budget is about $21 billion.
Made me laugh. Possibly because I don't qualify for *any* check. Here in New Mexico, where, unlike Texas, we do have an income tax, I was required to mail in my 2020 estimate (with check) by April 15, but not file my 2019 regular return until July, which was sort of a head-scratcher. I imagine it's even more of a head-scratcher for people whose business is closed, have no idea when they'll be allowed to reopen, yet have to estimate how much they'll make this year and send in a check. I'm not sure that entering "No fucking idea" would fly with the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue.
ReplyDeleteWait! I may have figured this whole thing out while typing this. Is it possible that New Mexico requires the estimate (with check) but not the income tax return, knowing that most people who file returns will be getting some kind of refund, so they won't have to send the refunds out until later? Hmm, he said. Deep State thinking. Though of all possible Deep States, New Mexico must be one of the shallowest.
Yep, it's all right there in the fine print:
ReplyDeleteI made an electronic payment from my bank account to the IRS (includes a Direct Debit Installment Agreement (DDIA)). Will my payment be direct deposited to the same account? Can I use Get My Payment to provide my bank account information?
The account information used to make an electronic payment to the IRS cannot be used as the account information for the direct deposit of your payment. If we do not have bank account information for you and your payment has not been processed yet, Get My Payment will allow you to submit your bank account information once you have properly verified your identity so that you can get your EIP via direct deposit. Otherwise, we will mail your payment to address we have on file for you.
I hope you know that the delay most likely is because "OUR FEARLESS LEADER' wants to have everybody get an authentic Donald J. Trumpf autograph on a check.
ReplyDelete(please look up the Scottish slang word definition for OUR FEARLESS LEADER, originally had an f at the end).
But if you get a check, you'll have a personally autographed DJT signature on it to frame in a prominent location! I, having received my gift from him electronically today, have missed out on that sure-to-be-a-collectors'-item and family heirloom. Of course, your check will be delayed because of the new requirement to have the DJT signature.
ReplyDeleteRick
Interestingly, the last time there was such demand for COBOL literati was in 1999, as the turning of the calendar approached and all these firms realized that they were going to be SOL unless they could find someone to fix their outdated code. Of course, once that emergency had passed, they went right on along doing things the way they always had, and now here we are again. Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteNudged by this post, I went to the IRS website, confirmed what you said, went to the page to enter bank routing number, etc., and it worked ... or seemed to.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should try again? (Or maybe I just got lucky)
I too, only send in money as a self employed photographer. I also went to the site to see if I could get insight as to when the check might appear.
ReplyDeleteAt first it returned a message that due to heavy volume the site may be slow to respond. Later I was able to enter data only to get a message that the information entered was insufficient to give a response.
I actually believe they substituted that page for the query routine when the user presses "Submit".
There is no tool, just a page telling you that you didn't do it right. Considering the info needed was SS#, and address it is nearly impossible for me to fail.
I also note that my PPP application submitted on April 5 because of THREE revisions of the application may not get funded as the money was all spoken for today. Moreover, I now learned that hedge funds and other one percenters are applying and getting PPP loans.
Oh, and they slipped in $170 Billion in retroactive tax breaks for Real Estate investors. I wonder whose idea that was?
Tried to use my iPad to access the IRS site. Failed every time. Out of curiosity I tried using my iPhone and it went through quickly and accepted my info. Might consider trying another device. Now we will see how long it takes to actually get the money. Absolutely zero confidence in the IRS so I will be shocked if it is ever deposited.
ReplyDeleteHear hear!
ReplyDelete"Kaf·ka·esque
/ˌkäfkəˈesk/
adjective
characteristic or reminiscent of the oppressive or nightmarish qualities of Franz Kafka's fictional world.
"a Kafkaesque bureaucratic office"
Not: I'm shooting with an FM2, not an "FM2n" as I said in an earlier comment. Eating soup and commenting on blog posts does not go together.
I just started a new blogspot blog, inspred by you. Thanks.
Something to remember when we want to give the government more power and responsibility over our lives. Can be so frustrating especially when there is no one to even talk to that can get anything done.
ReplyDeletePolitical alert, perhaps: After decades of working to "make government small enough that it can be drowned in the bathtub", how can one complain that it is not robust enough to respond in a crisis? Nothing is perfect, not even government (or naked capitalism for that matter), so there is always room for improvement everywhere.
ReplyDeleteRick
@unknown, Something to remember when we vote for a proven con artist.
ReplyDeleteIf you want something to get %$#&%$ UP get the federal government involved! Nough said!!!
ReplyDeleteto Unknown, above: The problem is that government can be fucked up from the top down, as has been happening for the last three years. Governments can and do have much positive impact depending on who is in charge. This particular time frame is what we might refer to as total incompetence. Fire everyone who had any institution memory or expertise and replace them with grifters who are just out to fill their pockets with tax money. Criminal.
ReplyDeleteThe government does many good things that the grifters are currently trying to destroy. Wanna blow up Social Security? Okay, you pay for your parents to live a decent life in their old age. Wanna blow up Medicare? Are you ready to foot the medical bills for your loved ones directly? Wanna blow up spending on infrastructure? Are you ready to pay a for profit company an unlimited amount for highways and then get tolled for the rest of eternity? Like clean water coming through the taps? Etc. Etc.
Free golf for grifters? That's a whole other topic. Broad brush puts too much paint in the wrong places.
Kirk, your words and thoughts on this sound like what I write to friends and family. Almost verbatim. You're gonna have to get a bigger soapbox, it could get crowded.
ReplyDeleteKirk,
ReplyDeleteBe careful about trying to access the IRS widget too many times a day, if you scroll down this piece from the Seattle Times, you'll find you can be locked out, as an anti-fraud precaution: https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/glitches-prevent-1200-stimulus-checks-from-reaching-millions-of-americans/
Kirk, I am with you 100%
ReplyDeleteI can't even watch that big orange grifter/snake-oil-salesman any more.
This truly feels like the Zombie Apocalypse. The hordes of brain-dead zombies are everywhere, and if you make a noise of protest, they all come after you, because they want your tasty brains.
I thought of a great solution to so many of these problems. The treasury should make a new $1200 bill. Print Trumps likeness on it of course. Signed by him of course. In Trump We Trust as the logo. Everyone can go to the bank and get one of these bills based on your Social Security number. These bills would circulate all through the world economy and show what a great leader we have in Trump. Right?
ReplyDeleteI think what many forget in considering regulations and laws is that the vast bulk have been demanded by the public. Secondly, many are preventive protections that result in lives saved, health improved and money saved.
ReplyDeleteThe problem for regulators is that the success of many regulations is the absence of outcomes. For example food safety regulations prevent illness and death from our visit to a restaurant. Pure drug laws ensure the drugs produced and prescribed are safe. Pure water laws prevent waterborne illness. Speeding laws prevent deaths. Red tape prevents grifters and corrupt officials from stealing from the taxpayer.
Many people will say “I did x and nothing happened” Sure, that is probably the standard result but regulations such as speed laws in residential neighborhoods prevent the surprise tragedy of a kid running into the street. Or children’s car seats prevent the death of your kid when you ram into the guy who felt stop signs were impacting their personal freedom.
Think deeply about the regulations. They got there most often because good people wanted them there.
The widget offers two options: [1] you paid to the IRS [2] the IRS paid you ... last year the account managed to zero things out ... [didn’t pay / didn’t owe] ... that option isn’t offered so the form showed an error .... basically useless even if it worked
ReplyDeleteI tried the page today -- and it took me longer to read the brief instructions than it did to successfully complete the form.
ReplyDeleteI did this on an old Mac. Rather than using Safari I used Firefox. I've noticed a time or three that forms may fail with Safari but will work with other browsers.
DavidB
We get a refund more often than not but only because I claim zero deductions for withholding purposes so *most* of the time I've already sent them more than I owe. Most of the time.
ReplyDeleteHey try applying for the Disaster assistance loan from the SBA get the application done wait three weeks and try and get an update. All of these systems are antiquated and overwhelmed and the little guys like us are the ones being forced out of business after 20+ years for me. Not the mega operations that are our clients oh and have stopped paying their bills to us as well.Happy days :-)
ReplyDeleteO.T., but knowing your regard for Eggleston,
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/style/article/william-eggleston-photographs-artsy/index.html
Rick