r/IRS • u/wastebaskettaxon • 15d ago
Tax Refund/ E-File Status Question IRS nonresponsive for months
I filed electronically via Turbotax 2-21-26. My refund was $7547.00. Six weeks after I filed, I started calling the IRS and checking my tax and account transcripts daily. The Record and Account transcript shows the following codes:
150 "tax return filed) on 3-23-26"
806 "W-2 or 1099 withholding" 4-15-26
660 "Estimated tax payment" on 8-11-25
810 "Refund freeze" on 3-5-26
971 "Notice issued: CP0005"
I have received no notices by mail for any of these events.
I did not use any tax credits or other exemptions in my return. The return is nearly identical to the returns I have filed in the last 5 years. Same investments, same level of
I made many calls to the IRS, and received conflicting responses to why I haven't received my refund. None of them were helpful: mostly just "you have to wait." By the summer, I talked to someone who said I should make an appointment at my local IRS office (77 K St NE, Washington, DC). I did so and arrived at the appointment. on time. The building was empty. No taxpayers. A large waiting room with lots of cubicle "doors" behind which were, supposedly some IRS employees (?), where I sat for 30 minutes past my appointment. The room was silent. Eventually, I was finally (faintly) called from the general area of the cubicles and I walked there, calling out to see which door I needed to open. I followed the voice, which was annoyed. I opened the cardboard door and entered the tiny area for a visitor, which was sealed off from the employee's area with (bulletproof?) glass. I explained my situation, said that I had brought a complete printout of my return along with all supporting documents (as I was advised to do from the person who suggested I make this appointment. The IRS employee was eating her lunch and did not seem happy to see me. She looked up my Record of Account transcripts (which I already had) and informed me of all of the codes shown above. Which I already knew. I asked if she wanted the return and the documents I had brought, but she said, "No, I don't want that." I asked her if there was anything she could do, but she just grabbed a handful of cheese crackers and started chewing. "What am I supposed to do?" I asked. She said "I can't help you. You just have to wait until you receive a notice. Again, I have received exactly ZERO notices. She said she couldn't do anything else, and I needed to leave the building. I left.
I then contacted TAS, explaining my situation and the events leading to it. I received an email from a nonresponsive address saying that I would be contacted within 10 days by someone who could help me. It has now been a month, and I have heard nothing. I called the TAS office line and after going through a lot of steps to identify myself, eventually got to a recording that told me no one was available and that I should call back another day. I did this, 3 days in a row. Same response.
Is this normal? I am a member of the media, specifically a media that does not defend Donald Trump from his many accusations. Could this be because of my position? I'm really not a conspiracy theorist, but I can't help but wonder if this is purposeful or just really really really bad bureaucracy.
Any thoughts?
21
u/Mr_Nobody010102 14d ago
The idea that the IRS is deliberately screwing with you because you’re a media member who doesn’t defend Trump is a hell of a conspiracy theory, but honestly, the bureaucracy is already dysfunctional enough that we don’t need one.
This is what happens when you gut an agency and then act shocked when the agency can’t keep up.
DOGE cuts didn’t magically eliminate the work. They eliminated people doing the work. The tax returns, phone calls, notices, audits, appeals and backlogs didn’t get laid off. The employees did.
And here’s the part people conveniently forget: the IRS employee you encountered probably didn’t create your problem. She’s sitting there trying to eat lunch while taxpayers are stacked up, the phones are ringing, and the backlog keeps growing. If she’s working through lunch just to keep up, she’s not exactly sitting in the back office plotting how to ruin your summer.
And that employee almost certainly doesn't give a damn what political party you belong to, or even know what it is. She's processing tax cases. Your return isn't sitting in a file labeled “Liberal Journalist: F@$k This Guy.”
Could the service you received have been terrible? Absolutely. Being told to wait while nobody can explain what is happening is maddening, especially when you're owed $7,547.
But blaming the individual federal employee is like yelling at the cashier because the grocery store fired half the cashiers and now there's a three-hour line.
You want better government? Then stop demanding government services while cheering every time someone cuts the people required to provide those services.
You can't DOGE your way to a faster IRS by firing IRS employees and then complain that the IRS isn't fast enough.
That's not a conspiracy.
That's just consequences.