It’s Friday night and instead of sipping on a cocktail at happy hour, I am sifting through tax regulations.
My volunteer gig for this spring is with the Dallas Community Tax Centers – a non-profit which provides free tax preparation services to low and moderate income individuals.
I worked with a similar VITA program in Minneapolis.
Taking advanced tax law classes at night after work was very draining. It made me rethink my perennial flirtation with getting a second degree.
Technology failed me during these past two weeks. This is how I started the morning:
If you soften your gaze and back away slowly, the fail whale will appear.
Blue screens lit up my work computer throughout the weekend and the beginning of the week. I also caught some version of the plague Saturday night, but meetings and computer repair issues brought my germy-body to the office on Monday and Tuesday.
At times the sinus pressure was so great that my right eye would start pouring as I talked to coworkers. I’m pretty sure they wanted to swat me away with a Lysol wipe.
I only had one question for the IRS:
I call the IRS’ practitioner priority line. Hold for about 30 minutes. Get transferred.
I hold for 10 more minutes. Get transferred again.
Reach a third person who gives me a number.
What a long, exhausting day.
I tried to call the IRS for a clinic client three times today. The first two IRS agents refused to talk to me because I don’t have my CAF1 number yet. They wouldn’t let me fax my power of attorney and special order, claimed not to have access to fax, and it was just ridiculous.