I nearly didn’t go through with it, that is, I almost walked away before I even started. It wasn’t similar at all to previous years; in a word – the waiting area was packed! This is only the beginning of the tax season and I assumed that I was getting ahead of the crowd by taking care of taxes the first full week of February. Looks like a lot of other people had the same idea!
After registering, I turned to take a seat, and except for a kind woman waving to an empty seat next to her, I thought I would need to stand. I was told at the registration desk I’d have about a 30-minute wait. Well, an hour later I was still waiting for my name to be called. Three and a half hours later I was done – well, not quite. Apparently the IRS is behind in several areas with regards to forms available to submit our taxes electronically. So though I am officially done, my tax forms are now sitting at the AARP local tax-aide office waiting to be submitted to the IRS. This is not happening to every taxpayer, but only those of us that have certain requirements, in my case, among other things, a son in college. The IRS is telling people that this ought to be cleared by the end of the month. So, in a sense, the wait continues.
But why am I writing about my experience to show in my blog? I’ll try to return to answer this later today or tomorrow. Stay tuned!
– Joseph