Call Back Later.

I called the IRS today because someone I don't know, someone I've never met and don't represent, is showing up attached to my professional account. Not my client. Not my error. A mistake in the IRS's own system.

So I called the IRS to ask the IRS to fix something the IRS did.

Estimated wait: 60 minutes.
Actual wait: two hours and three minutes.

The answer, when it came: they couldn't take my call today. Try again another time.

This wasn't the general public line. This was the professional line, the one built for people who already know exactly which office to call and what to say when someone picks up. I've spent 20 years in this industry. I know how to work this system. It still took two hours to be told to hang up and call back.

So what happens to someone who doesn't know any of that going in? Who doesn't know which office handles what, or the right words to use when someone finally answers?

Here's why that matters more than it sounds like it should.

The IRS doesn't just sit quietly while you figure things out. Notices go out on a schedule whether you open them or not. Miss enough of them, or misunderstand what one is actually telling you to do, and the system moves forward without you. A balance can turn into a lien. A lien can turn into a levy on your bank account or your paycheck. None of that requires you to have done anything wrong on purpose. It just requires you to not know what you were looking at, or to not be able to get anyone on the phone to ask.

I watch this happen to people who are not careless. They're just busy, or scared, or they assumed someone would call before things got serious. Nobody calls before things get serious. The system is built to keep moving on paper, and paper doesn't care if you were confused or overwhelmed or dealing with something else in your life that mattered more that week.

I'm not writing this over one bad phone call. I've been dealing with an unresolved issue on my own return for almost three years now. December will mark three years. I've already gone through my congressman's office and the Taxpayer Advocate Service. Still not resolved.

Something is genuinely broken at the IRS right now. I'm not saying that to complain. I'm saying it because I live it, and I watch my clients live it, over and over.

If you've got a notice sitting on your counter you're afraid to open, or you've been trying to reach someone for months and getting nowhere: you're not imagining it, and you're not the only one. Open it. Ask someone what it actually means before you decide it can wait.

Stay Sharp. 🗡️