Sam's Guide To Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse

It's been a while since we shared anything on this page but I think this might wake people up at least for a little. Many citizens of the United States are not pleased with how the US is being run. It does not matter what side you are on both have their grievances. But what can US citizens really do? Well interestinly enough a simplied quote from out found fathers is rather pertinent to our current situation. No taxation without representation.

Now you might be saying well we do have have representation due to our elected officials. Sadly, as proven recently this is not the case. Most elected officials have taken money to run from big corporations that have only their goals in mind cutting the little guy out. Now the next question might be, well don't we vote for them and the answer is yes but also no. An example of this is how the electoral college is ran as well as how each state and county is divide into subsections. Subsections that are controlled by those in power. Basically each state is carved up into different pieces of the puzzle. Have you ever wondered why california is almost always a democrat state and texas is a republic state? Its due to the way they are carved up so when your vote disagrees with the party in powers ideals they can have 2 voters that oppose yours.

Now getting away from the different forms of goverment manipulation we get down to taxes. So what do our federal taxes really pay for. The use spends around 716 billion dollars if not more each year on the defense budget. That's just the military, that doesn't nesecarily include private contracts. Now there are other government programs that do help us citizens but divided they are all tiny compared to what we spend on the military.

So what brought about this rant? Earlier this year, a group of us took a position at the IRS working as CSRs for seasonal work. The government shutdown kind of threw us all for a loop because at the time, a majority of us were still in basic accounts training. When we returned, we were drilled with information about disclosure and the affordable care act but not really the information that would be helpful everyday on the job like how to read the archaic system that they have in Place.

Now you might be saying to yourself. well ultimately its a computer job and research should be able to help you. Sadly this was not always the case. Once we returned. We were basically thrown to the wolves. We had a brief on the job training where other experienced csrs walked around to answer questions. Sadly, one question other than where's my refund is not unique and you can have a variety of answers. To find those answers there were two methods to find the answer.

The first method was to use the I.R.M, the internal reference manual. Basically it is the IRS's verison of the Bible to answer tax payers questions. Second was for legal questions it was the ITLA system. The interactive tax law assistant where we were threatended that if we put information in incorrectly we could be fired, sued, or worse.

Now one major red flag occured while on the job. If a certain part of the I.R.M was highlight or in pound signs it was not allowed to be said to the public even if it would benefit them. This was expecially annoying during times where accounts were marked with identity theft. Basically it made those dealing with it jump through extreme hoops to resolve an issue they might not even have known about.

Then there were freeze codes and unpostables where accounts could be in limbo hell. By sure the I.R.S wasn't going to say if you were owed money but by god if you even owed 3 dollars they would send letter after letter to you. Also don't default on a car loan and have it repossessed because the IRS will say you owe them money two or three years down the line for that car.

Now one of the second most common things that we saw was when an account went into IVO, internal verification office. Basically this office is a checker of tax returns to make sure everything aligns. Only problem is, it goes based off the records that the IRS has received whether through employers. Banks, medical companies, or self supplied. If you are self employed you are more than likely waiting at least an additional 45 days if not longer.

The process of the daily routine wore us down to where many either quit, became alcoholics, some drug addicts, became sick. and sadly one passed away but that's a whole nother story for a later date. Management constantly breathing down your throat nit picking every little detail.

Now to inform you about the daily routine. Starting off the day you were stuck coming into the office using a special government issued id with a chip in it. The chip is programmed to be able to access set doors and computers. So signing in to the computer is typically one password. Then once we would boot up the computer it required multiple other sign ins. One for the hard phone, one for the soft phone, one for a program called IDRS which works similar to the old program called Gensis. IDRS would require the csr to input command codes to pull up different archives: Amdisa, inoles, trdbv, txmod, imfobt, and rtvue. These are just a few of hundreds of codes that csrs have to use to find everything in an account and some are regent or office specific.

Now after accesing IDRS you could use the iat tool to help aid you with searching so the line of code didnt look like complete and utter gibberish. Like what does a tc 150 mean or a 971 with some subsect to say what it is for but not say what it actually is without having to research it. Now this is all the government being rather secretive with account information if you ask for a transcript of a different variety. So once IAT and IDRS is open, the csr is requires to use ams and the disclosure tool to look and open the account.

So when you call the irs. You are required to give them your social security number, Itin, atin, or business tin to be able to access the account. The moment that the csr types in that social security number they are able to see the name or names associated with the account, the address, and the dob. These are typically the 4 most common pieces of information needed to start talking about the account unless you screw up. the system isnt updated, or there is an identity theft indicator on the account.

If that's the case there's more questions. And goes into High risk where they will ask you for different information based of your account record or personal record such as taxes paid, income for the year. Children social security numbers, dobs, full names, spouses name social dob. Or where you were born. mothers maiden name first and last and fathers name.

That's just the disclosure portion. Now what personally was a god send at times was putting people on hold. It was actually encouraged where trainers stated you aren't paid by the number of calls you take you are paid by the hour. Typically the advised csr could out someone on hold for 5 to 7 minutes while the "researched" the account. For experienced csrs that was ultimately a time to so what ever they wanted whole the new hires would panic trying to find a needle in a hay stack. The job could be rather chaotic.

There were so many hoopes to jump through, multiple systems to use in a 13 inch screen, and management that ultimately didn't give a damn if you downed or werre able to swim.

So after all this. Why do we pay taxes. It is because we have been raised in fear of what would happen if we did not. They use the reference in training that it was ultimately the IRS that brought in AL Capon when others couldn't. Yet what happens when the many say nay or when the many get sick of the status quo.

Now this not a call for anyone to boycott paying taxesx this is just information to inform you of what goes on in the standard day.