Sunday afternoon at Not the IRS
I unexpectedly had a new tax client this afternoon, whose return itself was pretty simple (once we sorted out the filing status) but getting one of their W2 forms took an incredible runaround due partly to their generally being a non-techy person but also partly to corporate WTFery.
In summary, one store they worked at had closed, and their W2 was not mailed. They were able to get the URL of the company's internal website, but logging in required their old employee ID number, which of course they didn't have because they hadn't worked there for like 9 months. So they called a local company rep, who gave them the number of the corporate IT department, who said they couldn't hand out anyone's employee ID number and asked why the client didn't just go talk to someone at the local store? Which, of course, is closed -- and they'd said up front that that was why they were calling in the first place! *headdesk*
Finally the client remembered they still had their old ID badge sitting in a drawer at home, called their kid, and got them to read off the ID number. And then we had to walk through the password reset process, but we triumphed in the end.
It really does go to show that moving everything online can be super helpful and efficient, but you NEED a meatspace backup of some sort for when glitches inevitably strike or people fall through highly individualized cracks.
...
Also if the latest Covid-19 stimulus bill does get through Congress, we are going to have to do such a lot of amended returns to account for the sections about the first $10,000 of unemployment not being taxable and the rejiggered child tax credit qualifications and amounts. Those are both excellent provisions, but I wish to all the gods that anyone ever held holy that Congress had been able to pull their act together before the 2021 tax season opened. *sigh*
(In less directly job-related news, I spent about 45 minutes after one of my coworkers had left and while another was between clients listening to Coworker #2 (...Sonny Boy? yeah, let's call him Sonny Boy; it's the actual nickname Office Grandma uses for him) and Office Grandma spiral off into horrible Trumpian right-wing garbage. If they address me directly, I do challenge their statements, but I don't think there's much I can do by spontaneously butting into their "private" (ie, VERY LOUD but not technically aimed at me, and also part of the volume is just that Office Grandma is hard of hearing) conversations. I think I do more good by being a nice white lady who they like and poking at the edges of their misinformation bubble when more people are present than I could by setting myself up as an opponent and thus automatically to be disregarded.
Still, it is very stressful to have to listen to that kind of bullshit at extended length, particularly when they started going on about Kamala Harris being a slut who slept her way to her current job and is probably involved in illegal foreign business deals to boot. Especially when they simultaneously excuse EVERY FUCKING CRIME Trump has ever done in his life! *noises of inarticulate rage*) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)
In summary, one store they worked at had closed, and their W2 was not mailed. They were able to get the URL of the company's internal website, but logging in required their old employee ID number, which of course they didn't have because they hadn't worked there for like 9 months. So they called a local company rep, who gave them the number of the corporate IT department, who said they couldn't hand out anyone's employee ID number and asked why the client didn't just go talk to someone at the local store? Which, of course, is closed -- and they'd said up front that that was why they were calling in the first place! *headdesk*
Finally the client remembered they still had their old ID badge sitting in a drawer at home, called their kid, and got them to read off the ID number. And then we had to walk through the password reset process, but we triumphed in the end.
It really does go to show that moving everything online can be super helpful and efficient, but you NEED a meatspace backup of some sort for when glitches inevitably strike or people fall through highly individualized cracks.
...
Also if the latest Covid-19 stimulus bill does get through Congress, we are going to have to do such a lot of amended returns to account for the sections about the first $10,000 of unemployment not being taxable and the rejiggered child tax credit qualifications and amounts. Those are both excellent provisions, but I wish to all the gods that anyone ever held holy that Congress had been able to pull their act together before the 2021 tax season opened. *sigh*
(In less directly job-related news, I spent about 45 minutes after one of my coworkers had left and while another was between clients listening to Coworker #2 (...Sonny Boy? yeah, let's call him Sonny Boy; it's the actual nickname Office Grandma uses for him) and Office Grandma spiral off into horrible Trumpian right-wing garbage. If they address me directly, I do challenge their statements, but I don't think there's much I can do by spontaneously butting into their "private" (ie, VERY LOUD but not technically aimed at me, and also part of the volume is just that Office Grandma is hard of hearing) conversations. I think I do more good by being a nice white lady who they like and poking at the edges of their misinformation bubble when more people are present than I could by setting myself up as an opponent and thus automatically to be disregarded.
Still, it is very stressful to have to listen to that kind of bullshit at extended length, particularly when they started going on about Kamala Harris being a slut who slept her way to her current job and is probably involved in illegal foreign business deals to boot. Especially when they simultaneously excuse EVERY FUCKING CRIME Trump has ever done in his life! *noises of inarticulate rage*) If you want to comment on this post, you can do so over here on Dreamwidth, where there are currently (
comments)