Tax Day came, and went.
For many in the Postal Service, it was a day just like any other. Remember the good old days, with hordes crowded in our lobbies, frantic last-minute filers checking postmarks and the local police directing traffic?
Not so anymore.
Lately, however, Tax Day is just a regular day — no extra staff, no added hours and no large crowds for many offices.
Blame it on e-filing, which the IRS has been vigorously promoting. So far this year, 85 percent of tax returns were filed electronically, compared with 78 percent a year ago, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
What was it like in your office? Comment here.
18 comments:
Just like any other day. I had a couple of customers who wanted to watch me round date their letter...but nothing out of the ordindary.
We were swamped from the moment we opened to the time of closing. The last minute people are not going to elec. their returns.
I haven't worked a tax day since I ended up with my picture on the front page of the local paper the next day. I was working dispatch at the time and we weren't open late and the local community was not very happy so the paper was out taking pictures and talking to the people. I was told that we were busy but not with taxes.
Tax day? Who new? Seriously, we took a little bump up in volume but nothing we couldn't handle.
Slightly busier than any other Monday, but not bad. Would have been on top of things all day long, except the regular holder of the window job came back from vacation so that window was much slower than when we had ptfs manning it.
It is because the IRS demands that if you have a CPA or tax person do your taxes they must file electronically. Our CPA used to let me stamp and put in the box. He was told last year that was it. This year he had to file efile.
It's a sign of the times. Along with "online bill pay". the Post Office used to have online bill pay. We need to step up and tap into that market. Use our title of "Most Trusted Government Agency" and take advantage of it.
My tax preparer said that we had to file electronically but I refused. I had to sign a paper saying that they had told me and I refused.
I don't know about anyone else but I know of 4 people that filled electronically in March and all of them ended up having to do a paper filing because the IRS couldn't find their return. The IRS didn't care that the had a confirmation number. In 2 cases they were waiting for their money and the other 2 owed money. All of them were told to check their bank accounts after a certain date and if a transaction hadn't happened they had to wait another 7-14 days and then call. Of course that put them in the position of doing something on the 17th. Not a great system. I wonder how many people filed that way that owed money and will be getting notice of a penalty for non paymnt. I also don't think Accountants and CPAs should be "required" to file electronically. We don't MAKE people pay bills on line and we don't MAKE people use a computer. It is their personal choice and the same should be true with the IRS. It might be a sign of the times but I prefer to support the company I work for by using stamps.
Long queues may seem to be good for the business from outside but it won't be good on customer experience. I had to post a letter on 18th (last tax day) and was surprised that we had people who were receiving letters that just need to be stamped and hence the transaction happened in less than few seconds. I am assuming every customer who got that experience will return home satisfied. This happened in St Louis downtown postoffice near union station. Categorizing the transactions that need less time into its own window would make it more customer friendly. Maybe have a information desk for inquiries and such fast transactions.
I think the fact that IRS didn't mail out forms was also a factor. If you have to hassle with obtaining the forms/instructions, you're more likely to eFile or use a professional tax preparer.
I filed both my state and federal taxes via the mail. I did go on-line to print off the forms I needed. I had to pay in both cases, and my checks cleared my bank within five days of when I mailed my returns. I will continue to use the Postal Service until the IRS makes us stop.
I took the opportunity to upsell our "certified" mail service on this tax day! I've noticed that it's the people who "owe" money that have the tendancy to file on the very last day. So yes, business was busier than just a regular Monday.
We were busy from opening to closing. We definitely staffed one more SSA than normal and turned out that we needed them.
Just another "walk in the park" ...
The media made more of this than needed... must of been a slow news day!
I was out delivering mail and my clerk was overwhelmed and not up to the task. My tax day sucked!
We were swamped! We had managers standing outside with tubs for people to drop off their returns. Traffic was a nightmare! The APC overflowed and had to be emptied several times. Our office was open until 8pm and there were customers upset that we weren't open later than that.
I guess trying to upsell certified" mail service got quality of first class mail to only junk or addmail reliability. I sent two non certified mails on Tax day stamped and verified and both did not reach destination and it did not get returned despite that has return address. I guess only positive response gets posted here as my note earlier did not get posted. ALso I contacted both location post offices and they noted you should have put tracking on it otherwise no help.
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