I applied for Social Security payments 3 months ago on the advice of my CPA. It's been crickets. Fortunately, I don't need it to live on, but what about those people who do? These rich people cutting stuff for funsies don't know what they don't know and they sure as hell don't care.
Fuck-America-Up Elmo's DODGE makes me so happy I was desperate enough to apply for Social Security back in 2022, because back then the country was still run by somebody who (despite trying his damndest to shut down Social Security when he was a Senator!) had a Road to Damascus moment somewhere between being a Senator and being President, so he left Social Security alone when he had the chance to crush it.
That former Senator ALSO believed that doing things like getting rid of Social Security should only be done by Congress, which is accountable to their voters (many of whom are ON Social Security, or have family members who count on it!), rather than some Ketamine'd up spoiled rich kid and his favorite DoucheBros.
Productivity in the US is in free fall not just for the reason you note, which is a large factor, but also due to the terror imposed by Trump on any not white male.
There are 2 factors the explain all economic growth, population and productivity. Trump's desire to not just stop immigrants coming but to remove those currently here while depressing productivity is a recipe for disaster.
I had a similar, though lesser, blip from the IRS a few years ago. My disabled daughter is my dependent, so I qualify for head of household rates. I got a letter from the IRS saying I owed money because she had claimed herself as a dependent. Uh, I checked, No she hadn't. So I just wrote a letter saying that, along with a copy of her tax return with a great big red circle around the place where she declined taking herself. Didn't hear back. The next year I got the same letter for THAT tax year. I just mailed them my first letter (with BOTH tax returns). Never heard anything more.
So it was just the cost of writing a letter and paying an increased amount for stamps the second time. I figured if anyone came after me, I'd just bring the letter to the damn meeting. And of course, they can't garnish anything based on a letter.
You're right that it is utterly stupid to cut IRS services. But this is PLANNED stupidity; they are firing those who have the forensic know-how to look at complex returns from--you guessed it--the rich. Yet another case of "if we don't test, our numbers will be better" from Covid days. So many of the cuts in all areas just ignore the fact that viruses and climate change and measles don't go away if we pretend they don't exist.
Back in my early 20's, I paid my taxes, then received a sizeable (for me, at the time) check from the IRS saying I overpaid and was owed a refund. I was thrilled and not actually earning much money in those years, spent it fairly quickly. A month later, they sent me a letter saying oopsie, they refunded me *BY MISTAKE* and I had to pay back the money within 7 days or interest would start to accrue!
Thankfully I had parents to fall back on to pay it right away then take my time paying my parents back, but the biggest sin of our tax system and the IRS as our tax collection agency is how much burden it puts on low income earners, and how little they effect high income earners, and how all our policy ignores the reality of low income earners' abilities (and flexibilities) while regularly kowtowing to the pushback from the wealthy. When it should be precisely the reverse: we should have a government agency to assist low income earners with taxes while pushing back on the specious activities of those with highly paid accountants and lawyers.
Tax collection agencies around the world operate around the same mindset; they want to collect money by intimidating people (save for wealthy people, whom they seem to have no authority over.) The IRS only has a fearsome reputation because it's America's tax collector, with all which that implies...
after the IRS received increased funding under the IRA I had great experiences with the agents and working as an EP attorney w a tax practice I have had to work with the IRS even pre IRA when they had chronic underfunding and the employees are always great and helpful given the circumstances and it's miraculous how few mistakes are made by the IRS, pre DOGE boys gettting in there and messing everything up. I'm inclined to believe those incel monkeys mucking around in software they don't understand is the reason you got the delinquency notice in the first place, that poor woman on the phone had prob. dealt with hundreds of those calls and been yelled out on many of them
I applied for Social Security payments 3 months ago on the advice of my CPA. It's been crickets. Fortunately, I don't need it to live on, but what about those people who do? These rich people cutting stuff for funsies don't know what they don't know and they sure as hell don't care.
Fuck-America-Up Elmo's DODGE makes me so happy I was desperate enough to apply for Social Security back in 2022, because back then the country was still run by somebody who (despite trying his damndest to shut down Social Security when he was a Senator!) had a Road to Damascus moment somewhere between being a Senator and being President, so he left Social Security alone when he had the chance to crush it.
That former Senator ALSO believed that doing things like getting rid of Social Security should only be done by Congress, which is accountable to their voters (many of whom are ON Social Security, or have family members who count on it!), rather than some Ketamine'd up spoiled rich kid and his favorite DoucheBros.
Productivity in the US is in free fall not just for the reason you note, which is a large factor, but also due to the terror imposed by Trump on any not white male.
There are 2 factors the explain all economic growth, population and productivity. Trump's desire to not just stop immigrants coming but to remove those currently here while depressing productivity is a recipe for disaster.
And that cake is already in the oven.
I had a similar, though lesser, blip from the IRS a few years ago. My disabled daughter is my dependent, so I qualify for head of household rates. I got a letter from the IRS saying I owed money because she had claimed herself as a dependent. Uh, I checked, No she hadn't. So I just wrote a letter saying that, along with a copy of her tax return with a great big red circle around the place where she declined taking herself. Didn't hear back. The next year I got the same letter for THAT tax year. I just mailed them my first letter (with BOTH tax returns). Never heard anything more.
So it was just the cost of writing a letter and paying an increased amount for stamps the second time. I figured if anyone came after me, I'd just bring the letter to the damn meeting. And of course, they can't garnish anything based on a letter.
You're right that it is utterly stupid to cut IRS services. But this is PLANNED stupidity; they are firing those who have the forensic know-how to look at complex returns from--you guessed it--the rich. Yet another case of "if we don't test, our numbers will be better" from Covid days. So many of the cuts in all areas just ignore the fact that viruses and climate change and measles don't go away if we pretend they don't exist.
I use EFTPS to pay Employment Tax and Form 1120.
It has a note at the bottom of the payments list: It may take a while before these payments are applied to your account.
{Electronic Federal Tax Payment System}
Back in my early 20's, I paid my taxes, then received a sizeable (for me, at the time) check from the IRS saying I overpaid and was owed a refund. I was thrilled and not actually earning much money in those years, spent it fairly quickly. A month later, they sent me a letter saying oopsie, they refunded me *BY MISTAKE* and I had to pay back the money within 7 days or interest would start to accrue!
Thankfully I had parents to fall back on to pay it right away then take my time paying my parents back, but the biggest sin of our tax system and the IRS as our tax collection agency is how much burden it puts on low income earners, and how little they effect high income earners, and how all our policy ignores the reality of low income earners' abilities (and flexibilities) while regularly kowtowing to the pushback from the wealthy. When it should be precisely the reverse: we should have a government agency to assist low income earners with taxes while pushing back on the specious activities of those with highly paid accountants and lawyers.
Tax collection agencies around the world operate around the same mindset; they want to collect money by intimidating people (save for wealthy people, whom they seem to have no authority over.) The IRS only has a fearsome reputation because it's America's tax collector, with all which that implies...
after the IRS received increased funding under the IRA I had great experiences with the agents and working as an EP attorney w a tax practice I have had to work with the IRS even pre IRA when they had chronic underfunding and the employees are always great and helpful given the circumstances and it's miraculous how few mistakes are made by the IRS, pre DOGE boys gettting in there and messing everything up. I'm inclined to believe those incel monkeys mucking around in software they don't understand is the reason you got the delinquency notice in the first place, that poor woman on the phone had prob. dealt with hundreds of those calls and been yelled out on many of them
::We’ve probably run the Godzilla metaphor into the ground now (squish.)::
Nah! You can never run Godzilla into the ground!