I've been working in an accounting office since 2011, and over the past few years I've learned a lot about the U.S. tax system. Mainly, what I've learned is how incredibly stupid it is, how unfair it is, and how unbelievably inept, lazy, malicious those in local, state, and federal collections are. I imagine many people already know this, but I thought in this post I'd take a moment and list three particularly face-palming reasons.
You might want to pop a couple of aspirin before proceeding...
The Corporate Tax Deadline - Everyone knows the individual deadline for taxes is April 15th (although, ironically, it rarely actually falls on this exact date), but since most people don't own their own business, they probably don't know the deadline for most business taxes is March 15th. It's asinine to expect business owners and accountants to be able to have that short of time to get the information together in order to file a business return. Most small businesses don't have the funds to pay for year-round bookkeeping and don't have time to do it themselves. In my opinion, the entire tax deadline should be pushed forward by at least one month, if not two or three.
Penalties for You, No Accountability for Them - One of the more common letters people receive from state or federal collection agencies are penalties about late payments or, in many cases, small clerical errors. These letters usually come postmarked a week to sometimes a month earlier than when the letter actually arrives and will have a due date of essentially immediately (I'm not exaggerating). If you don't pay immediately you get penalized, but I suppose we can assume that's fair; however, anytime you have a dispute with the government and you win - meaning it is determined that the government actually owes you money - they will never be in a hurry to pay up. I've seen instances where it took the government over a year to pay up on something on an error they admitted, but there is no recourse for them. If you pay a week late, you could get charged interest, or if you wait long enough the government will just come in and take your money straight out of your bank account; however, when it comes to them owing you, there is no course of action for you to take other than wait.
People Don't Understand The System - Going along with what I said above, when the federal or state government owes you money, or you're waiting on a letter of resolution with an issue with them, they have no incentive to get it done quickly. Understandably, people can get nervous, impatient, restless as time passes, and so they begin to put pressure on us to get answers of resolutions for them. They don't understand, though, that all we can do most of the time is call, and even when talking to agents directly, it doesn't usually produce anything. Clients get angry when there aren't results, and often put the blame on us, insisting that we're the ones not doing anything. It's a frustrating cycle to go through. I don't blame our clients, though, for how they feel, but I am frustrated that the system often fails them so much.
This felt good to vent/rant a little! Although it may have spiked my blood pressure (haha). I may need to do another one of these before tax season is over.
How do you feel about taxes and the agencies in charge of collecting them?