First of all, say happy birthday to the federal income tax! On October 4th, the federal income tax has turned 100 years old. It is in the heart of our lives, as it makes possible our federal government’s vast operations. Before the income tax, federal government mostly relied on taxing imported goods, alcohol and tobacco for revenue. The first time the federal income tax was implemented was in 1862, during the Civil War, in order to generate revenue for war efforts. However, the government let it expire ten years after. Eventually, the income tax was written into our Constitution during the Progressive Era. The 16th amendment gives our Congress the power to tax income. With years, the tax code became more and more confusing. The tax code consisted of “only” 400 pages in 1913 but now it is made up of 73,954 pages and counting.
Now that we had a little history lesson, let’s get to the current issue the taxpayers are facing…besides the overly complicated tax code.
As you may know, the budget standoff forced the federal government to partially shutdown their operations but you (obviously) will still have to pay any taxes you owe. Taxpayers that are having tax issues this year are the ones who are going to suffer the most because the IRS won’t be answering any phone calls. Surprisingly, this is big news. According to Kelly Phillips Erb, a writer for Forbes magazine, “Even during the busy tax return filing season more than two thirds of callers do get through to a human being at the IRS, although they have to hold for an average of 15 minutes first.”
In addition to that, according to the IRS final shutdown plan, none of the employees dedicated to protecting taxpayer rights were included in the 8,824 employees kept on the job. Even people who never had a balance past due, need to be worried about the IRS generated automated notices that they send out if they decide that you’ve made a mistake. There is confusion as to whether these notices will be generated during the shutdown but even if there won’t be any new ones, there are people who are already waiting to resolve their issues. Usually, you’ll get this notice that may require you to pay extra money if you, for example, claimed the wrong credit or made a calculation error. Keep in mind, a lot of these notices are send out as a mistake. Unless you contact the IRS to resolve this issue within two months, you will definitely have to pay that fine. This is where the problem occurs…the IRS will not be answering their phones.
If you find yourself in that situation, my advice would be to pay the fine so you don’t ruin your standing with the IRS and don’t accumulate extra fines. There will be a chance to resolve your issues after the government fully resumes their operations. Make sure you postmark anything you send out so that if you’re going to need to take up your issue in court, there will be no confusion.
The history of how the federal income tax came to be is interesting,especially considering how it started from the Civil War to raise money for war efforts to what it became today. It is no doubt that the IRS shutdown will cause a lot of headache for all parties involved, and probably floods of phone calls to the IRS once the shutdown is over. When it comes to filing taxes, it is confusing already and with the shutdown it makes it impossible for people to contact the IRS to resolve their issues so they will be forced to pay the fine.
Almost 74,000 pages of tax code! That’s unbelievable. I’m glad there are experts out there like you to advise the people who don’t know much on the subject. Do you think that the number of pages will continue to increase?
WoW! i didnt know that it just turned 100 years old!
@ah125844 Definitely, unless they decide to simplify the tax code.