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IRS workers being told to come into work to process tax refunds without pay using union contract provision to not work for the IRS with no pay
- Thread starter Deleted member 3812
- Start date
2017: Mexico will pay for the wall!
2019: Americans won't get paid unless I get my wall!
This is Brexit levels of stupid.
2019: Americans won't get paid unless I get my wall!
This is Brexit levels of stupid.
But that would be inaccurate as the admin absolutely likes and has use for these essential departments. They just don't want to pay them. So it's worse than a shutdown.
I truly feel sorry for those people who are not being paid and are having to scrape together anything to get by. I can't imagine people who live in climates that are experiencing frozen temperatures now. At least in the summer you have more options to do things but being in winter really limits your options, not to mention the need for heat. So many people are going to be scarred by this and its upsetting that the elites won't be touched. They need to feel something.
It's anecdotal, but according to som people i know who work for the irs (and left claiming hardship), they only called back the frontline call center people who have limited ability to solve issues. All the other departments are still shutdown. So unless your return is filed online with direct deposit, and has absolutely no issues, You still probably would get your refund back until the IRS opens. So even if everyone stayed it wouldn't help that much.
Still I'm glad to see someone standing up to them. Asking people to work Without pay is nuts.
Still I'm glad to see someone standing up to them. Asking people to work Without pay is nuts.
I'd be making that hardship call straight away
Even if I had a healthy savings pot
No pay = No work
Even if I had a healthy savings pot
No pay = No work
I'm not an IRS employee but work inside an IRS building.
What was said in the article is mostly true. Department managers were called in last Wednesday to start bringing their people in by this past Tuesday. On Tuesday, a significant number of employees came in long enough to claim hardship and leave.
I'd say for the site I'm working from, something like 30-40 percent of the standard workforce is in.
Again bears mentioning that there's several programs out there for furloughed employees. We're offering extended due dates on existing loans, have a whole suite of furlough loans, etc. Hell, we bought 225 pizzas for the building yesterday.
So rather than a hot take, I'd rather supply some relevant information. I'm in a meeting all day today (in part to talk about yesterday's pizza) but will try to keep tabs.
Edited to add: the "working for free" is slightly disingenuous. They will get paid in full once the government reopens but there's going to be a shitload of work to be done once that happens. It's really going to be '20 before we're all caught up from the aftermath of this mess. Believe me, nobody wants this shutdown to end more than I do. These government employees are what keeps my office going. Just want to separate the facts from the rhetoric.
As for me, I still believe this shutdown doesn't end until an emergency declaration. That'll be laughed off in the courts, everyone will have moved on to the next dumb shit that Trump does and I'll be left helping my clients dig themselves out of this mess.
What was said in the article is mostly true. Department managers were called in last Wednesday to start bringing their people in by this past Tuesday. On Tuesday, a significant number of employees came in long enough to claim hardship and leave.
I'd say for the site I'm working from, something like 30-40 percent of the standard workforce is in.
Again bears mentioning that there's several programs out there for furloughed employees. We're offering extended due dates on existing loans, have a whole suite of furlough loans, etc. Hell, we bought 225 pizzas for the building yesterday.
So rather than a hot take, I'd rather supply some relevant information. I'm in a meeting all day today (in part to talk about yesterday's pizza) but will try to keep tabs.
Edited to add: the "working for free" is slightly disingenuous. They will get paid in full once the government reopens but there's going to be a shitload of work to be done once that happens. It's really going to be '20 before we're all caught up from the aftermath of this mess. Believe me, nobody wants this shutdown to end more than I do. These government employees are what keeps my office going. Just want to separate the facts from the rhetoric.
As for me, I still believe this shutdown doesn't end until an emergency declaration. That'll be laughed off in the courts, everyone will have moved on to the next dumb shit that Trump does and I'll be left helping my clients dig themselves out of this mess.
They just don't have empathy in the first place and they'll only understand when their asses are on fire, not the guy standing next to them.
People should be mad at Trump for asking them to work without pay not at the union for protecting their members.
But I think I know how Limbaugh and Hannity will spin this.
But I think I know how Limbaugh and Hannity will spin this.
I fully support this and I am happy to delay my refund if it means defending these federal workers.
Many members of the general public need this wake up call. Now they'll know what it feels like to be denied money that you deserve for an extended period of time. Hopefully their anger will be directed towards those who are truly responsible, instead of whoever Fox News tells them to hate.
Many members of the general public need this wake up call. Now they'll know what it feels like to be denied money that you deserve for an extended period of time. Hopefully their anger will be directed towards those who are truly responsible, instead of whoever Fox News tells them to hate.
That's cold comfort to those who honestly can't afford to be without income right now, though.
I appreciate your input, but the bold and underlined is of no comfort for people being asked to come in and work when they have bills to pay, food to buy, and when a lot of them have to pay money for gas and transit just to come in to do a job. A job they aren't currently being paid for. It'd be one thing if there was a known end date, but how long do you expect people to go without pay and to work on the expectation of pay? Sure they will get pay when it ends, but for now they're working for free. I don't find it disingenuous at all to say they are working for free, because until they are paid back pay they are. Hell like you said it is going to take a long time to even sort all of that out once the Govt reopens, so again, they may have to wait months to be paid for work they would do now. Call it what you will, it's fucked up.
Trust me, I get it and it most certainly IS fucked up. These employees are my livelihood so I have more than a little skin in this game.
Let me be clear— I think asking them to work under these circumstances is abhorrent. That said, it's also why those that chose to work are working.
Many of the takes here are vastly over-simplified. I get it. Not everyone has the direct links that some of us do. But there's much more to the story and a simple explanation just won't do it justice.
Edit again for clarification: by "chose" I mean, responding to the call back in, not striking, whether or not they came in to claim hardship.
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Yes do them now. Get it filed. Hell if your taxes are pretty simple and are efiled and direct deposited it probably won't affect you.
Many of these workers are front line assistance. The IRS would never be able to process every return if someone looked at all of them manually. That is why certified tax preparers exist. It allows to IRS to say, okay, this was prepared by X Software/Company/CPA and there aren't any other complications and all forms are here, this can be electronically processed.
The issue is when there are questions, or the return has issues etc. Not everyone can file in such a simple manner. This is what is going to hinder returns without having people working.
The only thing I don't know is how they do their batch processing, it is probably an automated job process but someone may have to monitor it or kick it off. Barring someone turning off all the IRS servers and Data centers a lot of people will still get their electronically filed returns that have direct deposit.
Heck in the tax thread most of us have already had our returns accepted and approved. Again now just waiting on the processing of payments, which could require approval from a human, more than likely a higher level employee, and that could be a cause to delay.
If every federal employee who wasn't getting paid decided not to show up for work on Monday, the shutdown would end in a hurry.
I can't wait to see this part in the movie. This whole situation is very serious but it still creates all these all too funny moments because of how absurd it is for this to be happening.
Reality won't bend to your will Republicans.
Mostly true. Had some departments of 60+ yesterday and some with 1-2. I'd still estimate the total at around 30-40%
I thought if they striked, they got fired and couldn't work for the federal government ever again?
Heh. Oh, yooouuu.
But yeah, good for them. I look forward to getting thousands back, but let it burn, brother. People need to feel the effects of Trump and McConnell's trash "leadership."
Good. Backpay or not, very few people can afford to survive missing two paychecks without serious consequences. Trump and Turtle are wayyy out of touch with the strain that kind of existence puts on a person.
I support the workers. Income precarity is dangerous to one's mental health as well as their financial needs. Keep the hardship absences going until the government is funded.
Then again, I don't have much to lose in this scenario -- my returns are always taken for student loans. Most I've ever gotten back is $60, once. But I really feel for my low-income peers who are counting on tax return money to fix their cars, pay off medical bills, or fund their kids' daycare needs. This is going to hit them hard, and it won't be pretty.
I support the workers. Income precarity is dangerous to one's mental health as well as their financial needs. Keep the hardship absences going until the government is funded.
Then again, I don't have much to lose in this scenario -- my returns are always taken for student loans. Most I've ever gotten back is $60, once. But I really feel for my low-income peers who are counting on tax return money to fix their cars, pay off medical bills, or fund their kids' daycare needs. This is going to hit them hard, and it won't be pretty.
Good for them. No pay should equal no work. If Trump wants to get those tax returns out, he can cave or do it himself.
The IRS workers are the ones with the leverage to really put the knife in the shutdown, if refunds are delayed indefinitely. All the "well the shutdown doesn't really affect me personally" people will be up in arms.
Yeah, normally I'm always owed money back. Round $5-$8k. If I claim 0 for a little bit, like 3-5 months it should even out.
The only thing Trump knows about taxes is how to avoid them.
