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The IRS Moved IT and HR Staff to Process Taxes. It's Not Going Well

63 points by everybodyknows 4mo ago

recursivedoubts 4mo ago
Gotta wonder how many returns are gonna get run through unauthorized AI tools by IRS employees this year, leaking private financial information into future training sets.
- joezydeco 4mo ago
  I haven't filed yet. Maybe some prompt injection in my 1040 will work some magic.
  - lovich 4mo ago
    We’re a bit past the deadline at this point. What would make you not have filed yet? I’ve heard of people missing it but never the reasons why and I can’t imagine one since I always file ASAP to figure out if I owe or am owed money.
    - jasonpeacock 4mo ago
      If you don’t owe then you have 3yrs (IIRC) to file. Of course, you also don’t get a refund until you file. And you usually have to do all the same work to know whether you owe or not…
    - joezydeco 4mo ago
      I 4868 it and do it over the summer.
      - lovich 4mo ago
        I don’t know what that term means and I was more asking for the personal reason to file so late. Like a literal, “I didn’t feel like it” is an answer, it’s just an action I can’t imagine taking so I was trying to understand your state of mind
        joezydeco 4mo ago
        An IRS Form 4868 is a request to extend the filing date for six months. It's always granted and you're expected to pay your estimated taxes in the meantime. I always owe, since I don't care to give this government a free loan of my money for a year or more at a time. I also have other documentation which isn't always ready by April of the filing year. So I file later on and pay whatever small amount of interest they charge, which is cheaper than a credit card or bank loan.
BoredPositron 4mo ago
So it goes as planned.
- solid_fuel 4mo ago
  "Government doesn't work, elect us and we'll prove it!" It's tragic how well this fucking strategy keeps working in this country.
  - cguess 4mo ago
    Don't just limit it to the US, it's going very well in the UK too!
jmclnx 4mo ago
Well Biden increased the IRS budget a lot, when the idiot was re-elected one of the first things he did was cut the IRS budget, took out Biden's increase plus some. This was done to ensure the IRS cannot audit the very rich. That works because the auditing the rich is very expensive and you need highly skilled Auditors for that. So, this is working as planned by Trump.
- cogman10 4mo ago
  Started in the second half of Biden's presidency. The republicans argued that the IRS was already overfunded in the first half and refused to allocate additional budget for them. This isn't just a Trump thing, it's a Republican party thing.
- elevation 4mo ago
  The ultra wealthy were already safe; it's much cheaper for the IRS accuse a middle class household with a couple W2s and a Doordash 1098 of inadequately tracking their mileage and fuel receipts than it is to review the reams of paperwork they'd receive when auditing any of the ultra-rich. Meanwhile, even in an alternate reality where IRS was occasionally seizing some billionaire's entire life savings for cause, the proceeds would fund the federal government's operations for just a few hours. Hours! No amount of collected taxes make a difference when congress spends 2-3x what they collect!
  - 7jjjjjjj 4mo ago
    Congress doesn't spend to 2-3x what they collect. It's closer to 1.4x. Please don't spread misinformation.
    - elevation 4mo ago
      > It's closer to 1.4x. Correct. The average was 1.37x revenue from the last decade[0], and the peak was 1.92x in 2020, not quite 2x. [0] FY2015-2024
  - triceratops 4mo ago
mjcohen 4mo ago
As usual, anything Trump and his minions touch turns to garbage.
- lokar 4mo ago
  Working as intended. Their goal is to degrade government
  - Vaslo 4mo ago
    Good - the less government, the better
    - y0eswddl 4mo ago
      not really, but the point is to get ppl to think like you do.
    - jfengel 4mo ago
      This isn't less. This is the same amount, but much worse. Meantime, government spending has gone from $6.8 trillion in 2024 to $7.4 trillion in 2026. We've gotten considerably more government.
486sx33 4mo ago
[dead]
cosmicgadget 4mo ago
> not going well Maybe working as intended, these are high level HR and IT people being reassigned to grunt work. Probably just another way to get people to resign.
jgoewert 4mo ago
> “I know I’ve heard from a lot of people that this is low-grade work. ‘It’s not what I need to be doing,’” Ziegler said, according to the transcript. “I need you guys to think about this from a different perspective.” > He said employees should approach their assignments “from a different mindset of, ‘how am I gonna do my job to the best of my abilities, because that’s what I want to do for the agency that I love: the IRS.’” Ziegler should get his butt into the seat and process returns. Since he makes about 2270x's the salary of these people, he should be able to get through about 2270 returns in the same time it takes them to do one.

Gotta wonder how many returns are gonna get run through unauthorized AI tools by IRS employees this year, leaking private financial information into future training sets.

joezydeco 4mo ago
I haven't filed yet. Maybe some prompt injection in my 1040 will work some magic.
- lovich 4mo ago
  We’re a bit past the deadline at this point. What would make you not have filed yet? I’ve heard of people missing it but never the reasons why and I can’t imagine one since I always file ASAP to figure out if I owe or am owed money.
  - jasonpeacock 4mo ago
    If you don’t owe then you have 3yrs (IIRC) to file. Of course, you also don’t get a refund until you file. And you usually have to do all the same work to know whether you owe or not…
  - joezydeco 4mo ago
    I 4868 it and do it over the summer.
    - lovich 4mo ago
      I don’t know what that term means and I was more asking for the personal reason to file so late. Like a literal, “I didn’t feel like it” is an answer, it’s just an action I can’t imagine taking so I was trying to understand your state of mind
      - joezydeco 4mo ago
        An IRS Form 4868 is a request to extend the filing date for six months. It's always granted and you're expected to pay your estimated taxes in the meantime. I always owe, since I don't care to give this government a free loan of my money for a year or more at a time. I also have other documentation which isn't always ready by April of the filing year. So I file later on and pay whatever small amount of interest they charge, which is cheaper than a credit card or bank loan.

BoredPositron 4mo ago

So it goes as planned.

solid_fuel 4mo ago
"Government doesn't work, elect us and we'll prove it!" It's tragic how well this fucking strategy keeps working in this country.
- cguess 4mo ago
  Don't just limit it to the US, it's going very well in the UK too!

jmclnx 4mo ago

Well Biden increased the IRS budget a lot, when the idiot was re-elected one of the first things he did was cut the IRS budget, took out Biden's increase plus some. This was done to ensure the IRS cannot audit the very rich. That works because the auditing the rich is very expensive and you need highly skilled Auditors for that. So, this is working as planned by Trump.

cogman10 4mo ago
Started in the second half of Biden's presidency. The republicans argued that the IRS was already overfunded in the first half and refused to allocate additional budget for them. This isn't just a Trump thing, it's a Republican party thing.
elevation 4mo ago
The ultra wealthy were already safe; it's much cheaper for the IRS accuse a middle class household with a couple W2s and a Doordash 1098 of inadequately tracking their mileage and fuel receipts than it is to review the reams of paperwork they'd receive when auditing any of the ultra-rich. Meanwhile, even in an alternate reality where IRS was occasionally seizing some billionaire's entire life savings for cause, the proceeds would fund the federal government's operations for just a few hours. Hours! No amount of collected taxes make a difference when congress spends 2-3x what they collect!
- 7jjjjjjj 4mo ago
  Congress doesn't spend to 2-3x what they collect. It's closer to 1.4x. Please don't spread misinformation.
  - elevation 4mo ago
    > It's closer to 1.4x. Correct. The average was 1.37x revenue from the last decade[0], and the peak was 1.92x in 2020, not quite 2x. [0] FY2015-2024
- triceratops 4mo ago

mjcohen 4mo ago

As usual, anything Trump and his minions touch turns to garbage.

lokar 4mo ago
Working as intended. Their goal is to degrade government
- Vaslo 4mo ago
  Good - the less government, the better
  - y0eswddl 4mo ago
    not really, but the point is to get ppl to think like you do.
  - jfengel 4mo ago
    This isn't less. This is the same amount, but much worse. Meantime, government spending has gone from $6.8 trillion in 2024 to $7.4 trillion in 2026. We've gotten considerably more government.

486sx33 4mo ago

[dead]

cosmicgadget 4mo ago

> not going well Maybe working as intended, these are high level HR and IT people being reassigned to grunt work. Probably just another way to get people to resign.

jgoewert 4mo ago

> “I know I’ve heard from a lot of people that this is low-grade work. ‘It’s not what I need to be doing,’” Ziegler said, according to the transcript. “I need you guys to think about this from a different perspective.” > He said employees should approach their assignments “from a different mindset of, ‘how am I gonna do my job to the best of my abilities, because that’s what I want to do for the agency that I love: the IRS.’” Ziegler should get his butt into the seat and process returns. Since he makes about 2270x's the salary of these people, he should be able to get through about 2270 returns in the same time it takes them to do one.