I’m a fired IRS employee who was reinstated getting paid to do nothing now. AMA

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As the title says been sitting at home for 4 weeks now just following court cases and hoping my agency calls me back. Bored so figured I’d start this. Feel free to ask me anything you might be interested in the IRS about, I was/am I guess a contact representative in collections.

Comments

  1. Cranberry-Electrical Avatar

    Do you have a college degree?

  2. sled603 Avatar

    What’s the best way to cheat on my taxes and not get caught?

  3. Beauty_Grace202 Avatar

    What was your job in the IRS? What does a contact representative in collections do?

  4. Tobybrent Avatar

    Do you know an MAGAs in the same boat as you? What’s their take on all this?

  5. Difficult-Way-9563 Avatar

    Glad you got your job back

    Do if your short term realized looses for stocks are more than short term realized gains, do you owe nothing for stock taxes?

    For example

    • ST realized losses = -$200
    • ST realized gains = $100
  6. Cranberry-Electrical Avatar

    What is the best time to call the IRS about an issue?

  7. whoathererockstar Avatar

    I’m so curious – how were you reinstated, did they call you personally or send a generic email? And how long after your dismissal were you reinstated? Do you think they know you work there – do you think you kind of slipped through the cracks and get to collect a paycheck?

  8. Mysterious-Bake-935 Avatar

    Did you say you got your job back but are getting paid to do nothing?

    What do you mean?
    And are you an EA? Or do you want to be as a side hustle? Do you get a pension?

  9. deetredd Avatar

    What are the salaries like at various levels within the agency? Can you explain the pay bands for different experience/seniority levels?

  10. thatguybenuts Avatar

    Not that you would, but if you wanted to, would it be possible to wipe out someone’s balance?

  11. redneck511 Avatar

    How do you feel about stealing peoples money every paycheck to help fund terrorists across the globe through USAID?

  12. whoneedskollege Avatar

    How will the budget cuts to the IRS affect the department to do it’s job? Will it make it less able to perform audits? Or able to collect on monies owed?

  13. SixtyNineNUp Avatar

    How many hours did you actually work per week? Not including lunch break or any long coffee/smoke break.

  14. its_original- Avatar

    If you owe money, what’s the easiest way to file extensions and how many times can you file them?

  15. unamned2125 Avatar

    Let’s just say I was in the middle of an audit that was supposed to be resolved by February. Received a letter saying IRS needs an extra 60-90 days to finish reviewing. This was ridiculous audit as I’m no business owner or anything like that just a 1099 contractor that makes less than $100k. With this new sheriff in town you think the audits will take longer or I will be dragged endlessly? Kudos to you for answering questions as IRS is like the forbidden zone for us peasants.

  16. 44035 Avatar

    I’m very aggressive this year on what I consider business expenses. I figure the IRS doesn’t have the staff to do a lot of audits, so why not. Should I be more cautious?

  17. SurferVelo Avatar

    How can you tell if church donations are BS?

  18. Terrible_Fish_8942 Avatar

    Do you really expect businesses to keep 3 years of receipts for buisiness expenses?

  19. UnhinderedGoat Avatar

    If you owe say 50k in back taxes and havent defaulted on a payment plan, whats the fastest way to get that amount down to zero. Can a lesser amount be negotiated and paid over multiple payments to satisfy the debt?

  20. Ambitious-Ad-6873 Avatar

    Do you feel more or less efficient than before?

  21. smokeydevil Avatar

    By and large, would you say the changes to the standard deduction helped or hurt the average tax payer?

  22. Amonamission Avatar

    Hey it’s another version of me lol, I was a revenue agent. Have you found any job opportunities? I haven’t found shit except one interview.

  23. BigButtholeBonanza Avatar

    I recently sent 5 years of back tax returns to the IRS, all filled out by hand and mailed in (which I know is slower already as is). Given all the cuts, is it gonna take months to hear back from them? They haven’t even deposited the checks I sent in with my returns and it’s been a month.

  24. Particular-Main1267 Avatar

    Do you wish you had taken the fork?

  25. mobilevaughn Avatar

    Will the person I reach on the phone automatically review my account to find ways to reduce my balance or do I need to make a specific request. If my return was audited and I was found to owe money what are all the various ways to ask for a reduced balance for penalty and interest?

  26. the_blacksmythe Avatar

    How long ere you employed there?

  27. Maltosend Avatar

    Are we ever going to get to a point where the IRS just sends a summary of your prior year taxes and asks whether you agree? If so, they then send you a refund or you send a payment? Maybe there is an option to report undocumented circumstances/deduction or something but for a majority of people their taxes are predetermined and known. I am really tired of doing something the government has to review and correct when they could just tell me instead.

  28. bofomondo Avatar

    Good for you!

  29. Sad-Pound-803 Avatar

    How can I get a job at the IRS

  30. LEMONSDAD Avatar

    What’s the most money you got back in a single collection?

  31. Crimsonking842 Avatar

    Hey, I’m still waiting for my refundfrom 2023. They owe me about $3800(I over pay). They have already paid me for 2024. Any advice on how to get my money lol.

  32. admseven Avatar

    Do you expect to get RIFd?

  33. soupsupan Avatar

    I had some payments misallocated to the wrong tax year. The first time I called the agent I spoke to said the Credit Transfer Machine is broken. I immediately imagined a bunch of pulleys and gear and pipes with steam shooting out. Is that the correct image ?

  34. AllAboutGingerPride Avatar

    Maybe you’ll know this but if a tax specialist fills out your correct information why aren’t they liable to pay if they mess up?

  35. mikebrown33 Avatar

    If I buy a house without selling my old house, how long do I have to sell the old house without incurring capital gains?

  36. Top-Ad859 Avatar
  37. Jazzlike_Platypus_24 Avatar

    Any idea as to when an estate closing letter might be issued for a 706 return that was filed in February 2024?

  38. jjbech Avatar

    So what do you mean when you say you are following court cases? Is that something you are required to do? Or just passing time out of boredom? What are your actual requirements when working from home to earn your pay?

  39. nparker13 Avatar

    Small business owner here who did everything I was supposed to for ERC and it’s been in limbo for years with no updates or insight into what’s going on. Any thoughts on the best way to get more info or keep things moving? I try calling the business hotline but it seems to depend on the agent. TAS worth a try?

  40. LettingHimLead Avatar

    What’s the most common call the IRS gets? I’ve been filing taxes for almost 20 years and have never had direct communication with the IRS.

  41. naked_pagan Avatar

    Taxation is theft

  42. Outrageous-Glass2223 Avatar

    How many months can I go except before it get noticed ?

  43. PocketSandOfTime-69 Avatar

    If taxes people pay go to things society needs, like police and firefighters, why do cops and firemen have to pay taxes too? Where does their tax money go?

  44. SimilarLawfulness746 Avatar

    Does the IRS use Benford’s Law to detect cheating?

  45. gehrlinspiel Avatar

    Does the IRS care about my possible work fantasy football league earnings, March madness earnings, and other payments sent to various apps like Venmo and PayPal?

    Mainly wanting to know about if I’m the money holder to distribute said cash to the winners. Am I supposed to pay taxes on this?

  46. insertJokeHere2 Avatar

    What’s the best resource to learn all of the IRS tax codes, legislation, and regulations?

  47. Main-Wrangler-5080 Avatar

    Are you allowed to and if so do you plan to volunteer at VITA or other types of activities?

  48. Consistent-Air-2152 Avatar

    What if you forget to include your brokerage account 1099 but just file your w2 will they know?

  49. Throwawayhobbes Avatar

    It’s impossible to get a hold of anyone even before Covid. What is the direct phone tree to actually talk to someone?

  50. dr_megamemes Avatar

    Do you think I can get away with more solar tax credit? Thanks!

  51. a822j20 Avatar

    How will small business owners (like really small side hustle businesses for example) who report expenses on Schedule Cs be affected in the short to medium term? Will that decrease the chance of an audit or are those also automated?

  52. a822j20 Avatar

    For the callers that you go an extra mile to help out, what about them made you want to help them out? I’m wondering what I can do to get better customer service help lol

  53. Truecrimeauthor Avatar

    What is the general consensus of Musk being knighted a “ new” department dictator – I mean, director? I know you can’t speak for anyone, just wondering what the skuttle is.

  54. Neat-Entertainment-5 Avatar

    I overpaid on payroll taxes one year. I ended up having to pay twice on two separate EINs. The auditor told me that they couldn’t switch the overpayment from one EIN to the other without me filing a return on the other. So I had to pay over $7k twice to the IRS.
    Do you recommend I file an amended tax return? This was a couple of years ago.

  55. PhilosophyKingPK Avatar

    Hypothetically let’s say you got audited for earned income tax credit and sent it your proof of income and bank accounts for your small business and IRS accepted this as is…ie you won the audit. Are you likely to get audited again or are you on some “list”?

  56. nosaj23e Avatar

    Why is it taking so long to get my federal return? I got my state over a month ago, is the IRS just super backed up because of the DOGE fiasco?

  57. Gazmn Avatar

    Which President did you vote for? How safe do you think we are for next 4 years?

  58. ppullman Avatar

    If I file HoH but don’t have any dependents anymore, is that something the computers will automatically flag?

  59. jamanuh1776 Avatar

    I filed taxes three years ago and I usually make 30-35k a year in OH. I bough some crypto and made 5k but re invested and loss it. I didn’t add it to my taxes and didn’t knew you had to. Never heard from IRS what is your thigh on this?

  60. puan0601 Avatar

    is it true taxes won’t really be reviewed much the next 4yrs?

  61. J-Stoxs Avatar

    How strict is IRS on 1065 Schedule L, M-1, M-2 for small start up business who filed 1065 late and is now required to add those schedules? For reference, The LLC’s bookkeeping data is not very good but they only made 3k in the 3 months they were open ‘24. Thank you.

  62. Yaydrizzy Avatar

    If you’re in collections… my amended tax return was reviewed and “approved” (June 2024) but internally they have never updated the balance I owe. Every agent keeps telling me not to pay the amount on my account that is listed online because it is incorrect to what they have internally but the underwriter hasn’t finalized it yet. On the flip side I keep getting notices that I’m going to be levyed and no one seems to be able to get me an answer on what to do, how to stop the levy because the amount listed that I owe is incorrect and I keep getting told it’ll be finalized “soon”. I’ve been hearing “soon” for 3 months now 🥲

  63. Worried-Text3347 Avatar

    Do you feel as though every employee at your location is necessary? Are employees tasks being completed efficiently?

  64. Worried-Text3347 Avatar

    Do you feel as though every employee at your location is necessary? Are employees tasks being completed efficiently?

  65. Grouchy-Criticism755 Avatar

    Thank you OP for helping everyone out and being so calm and patient. Sending you positive love and vibes for a safe vacation and when you return a job.

  66. GiJake68 Avatar

    I feel for you as a person. But as a taxpayer you’ve already enjoyed a four week vacation. Don’t make it five. Take your termination with grace and begin a career where maybe you’re necessary enough a month long absence would be noticed by the economy. It will feel rewarding.

  67. loserkids1789 Avatar

    The irony of doge claiming to cut waste but now just created thousands of people getting paid to do nothing 😂

  68. Dry_Seaweed_4979 Avatar

    What’s the threshold for getting audited typically? Is it True the IRS won’t waste their time with a business making less than 100k?

  69. Pure-Blacksmith5127 Avatar

    You need to be doing something if the tax payers are paying your wages. I expect to see you out sweeping streets at a minimum. The arrogance on you to be accepting my money, be doing nothing and then coming to the internet for attention. Bad form.

  70. ama_compiler_bot Avatar

    Table of Questions and Answers. Original answer linked – Please upvote the original questions and answers. (I’m a bot.)


    Question Answer Link
    I’m so curious – how were you reinstated, did they call you personally or send a generic email? And how long after your dismissal were you reinstated? Do you think they know you work there – do you think you kind of slipped through the cracks and get to collect a paycheck? Oh they know. I was fired along with every probationary employee on February 20th. I was reinstated on March 13th when two different cases and judges rulings reinstated all of us fired federal Probationary employees. We will get back paid and since March 13th we have been on admin leave meaning sitting at home paid to do nothing. I also want to be clear. When I say probationary it means employees that have worked at the federal government for less than a year, sometimes 2 depending on the agency or job. Here
    How will the budget cuts to the IRS affect the department to do it’s job? Will it make it less able to perform audits? Or able to collect on monies owed? I think it will definitely affect things a lot. I know for my job and others directly communicating with taxpayers they are on hold and receive very little person interaction. This will only decrease and be far worse hold times and experiences for taxpayers. It also does sound like it will affect large audits. The system in place is mostly an automated collection system so it will be able to find fraud with like claiming credits and stuff you shouldn’t receive but I would say larger audits that need to be done manually will be less performed especially if they cut exam and audit agents like they plan to. So I don’t see that affecting smaller automatic audits but for people that know the system and how to get by it, my guess would be less audits on that. Money still should be collected fine as it’s automated… However taxpayers will receive less assistance so they will probably defer on paying and all that unless they know how to or why they owe. And less audits = less money as well. There was an article the other day how cutting the IRS will bring down revenue which I definitely agree with. So to sum it up taxpayers will get less help, there will be less manual audits which deal with larger fraud, less agents and officers which deal face to face with business and large owing balance taxpayers. So I’d say definitely a lot less revenue being received. Here
    Do you feel more or less efficient than before? Best question yet 😂😂😂. I wish they were tracking this on doge savings but of course they won’t. Here
    What’s the best way to cheat on my taxes and not get caught? Lol. As far as filing I don’t deal a lot with that as I work on the collections side and deal with balances. So I do however see thousands of accounts that have been audited. Based on the amount of audits I would advise against cheating because the system seems pretty thorough. Common things I see get caught all the time are underreporting your income, claiming multiple dependents or over claiming credits most commonly the earned income credit to get a giant refund. I highly advise against these because I see them caught all the time. Here
    Let’s just say I was in the middle of an audit that was supposed to be resolved by February. Received a letter saying IRS needs an extra 60-90 days to finish reviewing. This was ridiculous audit as I’m no business owner or anything like that just a 1099 contractor that makes less than $100k. With this new sheriff in town you think the audits will take longer or I will be dragged endlessly? Kudos to you for answering questions as IRS is like the forbidden zone for us peasants. Lol you sound like a call I would get often the 60-90 days part is funny. I apologize about the audit and we definitely understand but unfortunately there’s little we can do about that it’s just the laws and the rules but I mean I personally hope it all gets resolved for you soon cause I would also hate that. Audits could definitely take longer with lower staff. I mean audits and responding to letters and forms could take longer anyways even when we had more staff than 60-90 days amended returns our guidelines was 4-6 months to tell Taxpayers but even those could take longer. So unfortunately I don’t know hopefully someone is working on it but it might take a while. I would just advise to call and check in, as long as you tell us you did what you were told we can put a hold on collections as long as it takes really to get fixed. Once it’s fixed obviously you don’t need to worry about interest and penalties accordingLy cause if you shouldn’t owe a balance that will be cleared. We also were able to see if someone was actively working on the account we would see an open status so if you get a more experienced agent as well on the phones they might be able to tell you your situation. Other than that if you don’t hear in 60-90 days, definitely call and if you feel treated unfairly or we didn’t do what we promised there’s always TAS (taxpayer advocacy services) there for you to contact them for help as the last step cause they have more power than us (collections) I would say in getting answers. But I mean yeah less auditors definitely possible could take longer apologies. Lol no problem thanks I’m just bored and didn’t realize there’d be this many questions but glad I can break it down and help when I didn’t think most of what I did would be useful but it’s definitely an entirely complex system and language for sure. Here
    Are we ever going to get to a point where the IRS just sends a summary of your prior year taxes and asks whether you agree? If so, they then send you a refund or you send a payment? Maybe there is an option to report undocumented circumstances/deduction or something but for a majority of people their taxes are predetermined and known. I am really tired of doing something the government has to review and correct when they could just tell me instead. I highly doubt it lol. Sadly that’s how the US works where you have to figure everything out. Its pretty unfortunate but I’ve heard nothing and doubt that would change anytime soon. Pretty dumb system for sure. That’s how they make their money I guess. Here
    If you owe say 50k in back taxes and havent defaulted on a payment plan, whats the fastest way to get that amount down to zero. Can a lesser amount be negotiated and paid over multiple payments to satisfy the debt? This is a question I love answering because 50k is the bench mark to get under and you’re safer than if you were over. If you owed over 50k assessed balance you would get a lien filed but being under 50k you can do a payment plan and not have a lien. The fastest way would be I mean to full pay it lol. Fastest way for less is if it’s one years balance and you have good previous compliance and owing history then ask for a penalty abatement to clear failure to pay or file penalties. Apart from that the relief option they have is called offer in compromise. Now it’s a separate department so I don’t know exactly what offers they accept, but you can submit a proposal to them to pay 20% of the balance owed. You must pay the 20% upfront as voluntary or else in a payment plan ranging up.to 24 months and you must submit the 20% payment with the form or else the first payment plan payment with the form. The form is 656b if you were wondering can be found on irs.gov . They have you submit form 433a with it which is a financial statement. I would assume that form is there to determine if you are in a hardship. If the financial shows you can afford to pay the balance in a normal payment plan then I doubt they would accept the offer, but like I said I don’t know as I didn’t work for that department I just know how it works and how to submit it. If those options don’t work I’d advise keep paying avoid collections and you’ll be fine. Here
    What is the best time to call the IRS about an issue? This is a tricky one. They definitely don’t tell us as much as we’d like to know about call volume. Being that we’re open 8 am to 8 pm local time wherever you are in the US I would call at 8 am est as early in the morning as possible. People obviously usually call more during the day than morning, that’s the only time we may have breaks in between calls if at all so I would advise the earlier the better. As far as months go we weren’t super busy in September or October I would say if I remember correctly but people are always on hold waiting for calls unfortunately. We are definitely understaffed and they will be more now. Here
    How long ere you employed there? April 22nd will be one year. Here

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