Stories abound of people who are hounded by agents of the IRS on seemingly inconsequential grounds. This is not one of them. This is about incompetence and lack of accountability. I am due a nice refund this year, a few thousand dollars, from the Feds. As opposed to last year when I unexpectedly had to pay tens of thousands of dollars to them. So as soon as my return came back from the accountant, I went down to the USPO and sent it in. Checked my bank account balance almost daily starting about two weeks later (this is the time frame my accountant said to expect) hoping to see those extra dollars. Not there. Not there. My paper state refund shows up in the mail yesterday (thanks, Gray Davis and Kathleen Connell) and I think that the Feds must have had enough time as well.
Sure enough, the IRS website gives me a number to call to find the status of my return. The computer states that the money was deposited into my account on March 22. Sufficient time has passed that the money should be showing up, so I call CalFed’s customer support line. The nice woman there searched and found no transfer of the specific amount into their system from any source to any account in the last 30 days. Uh oh.
The IRS system had given me a follow-up number to call in case of any problems. Doesn’t this make you think they get more problems than they ought to if they give out the number automatically? Perhaps the system has some embedded logic, though, which says if A (say a refund was made) and B (the refund is a direct deposit) and C (the deposit was made more than one week ago) then the person calling probably hasn’t received the refund in which case there is a problem and gives out the follow-up phone number. Don’t think so, do you? As Dennis Miller says, “Of course, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.”
Anyway, I call up this morning and speak to agent 1600xxx. This obviously bored and uninterested woman tells me, after looking into the database, that the money could not be deposited into my account due to either a mistake in entering the account information or a bug in their software which does not accept a leading zero in the account number. Yes the deposit attempt was made on March 22; somehow it took until today for the system to recognize that the deposit did not go through–what a coincidence, eh?–and so a paper check will be mailed. Today. No wait a sec. Next Friday. Yes, a check will go out in one week. Um no, no way to speed it up, this is how the system works. Yes, you do have to wait an extra four weeks to see that money. No, the government does not pay a penalty or interest in this situation. Yes, if you did this to us you would have to pay penalty and interest. Sorry.
BillSaysThis 