For the past few weeks I tried on a weekly basis to go online and renew my number with the IRS; the number that legally permits me to stay in business as a tax preparer.
It was announced, sometime in October, that practitioners could renew online. That was simply not so. It was only this past week that I could advance to renewal screens online. But then, who remembers once a year passwords and usernames? Who knew that the password only was valid for 6 months and that the incorrect data you were posting was caused by the wrong password, locking you out of the system?
So last night I called an IRS number in Iowa. Lo and behold, I did not have to wait - I got through to an individual almost immediately. I got an activation number that I had to use when re-applying as a new online user.
And then, this morning, I tried the activation number - although the screen where one can enter that number only was found after a very frustrating half hour online. Yet I did succeed and I did confirm, once again, that the IRS is not a bastion of computer efficiency; that the FATCA and F(u)BAR systems it is extending its electronic reach to are going to truly be fubar!!!
It was announced, sometime in October, that practitioners could renew online. That was simply not so. It was only this past week that I could advance to renewal screens online. But then, who remembers once a year passwords and usernames? Who knew that the password only was valid for 6 months and that the incorrect data you were posting was caused by the wrong password, locking you out of the system?
So last night I called an IRS number in Iowa. Lo and behold, I did not have to wait - I got through to an individual almost immediately. I got an activation number that I had to use when re-applying as a new online user.
And then, this morning, I tried the activation number - although the screen where one can enter that number only was found after a very frustrating half hour online. Yet I did succeed and I did confirm, once again, that the IRS is not a bastion of computer efficiency; that the FATCA and F(u)BAR systems it is extending its electronic reach to are going to truly be fubar!!!
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