HOUSTON – The clock is ticking to file your taxes.
Monday is Tax Day and today, the Internal Revenue Service Taxpayer Assistance Center in southwest Houston closed unexpectedly, leaving hundreds of Houstonians in need of help with their taxes stranded.
The office was supposed to be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with walk-ins accepted. People started showing up in the early morning hours. Hundreds of people waited in a line that stretched close to a half-mile long.
Angela Harris lives in Conroe and drove down early this morning. When she saw the line, she left. She came back hours later to see a sign posted on the door that said, ‘THIS OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED TODAY.’
Adrienne Angton assisted her grandmother to the office building. She said her grandmother filed her taxes early this year.
“Way back in February, she filed in February,” Angton said. “We didn’t find out until March that she had to come and verify herself.”
Angton said today was the soonest her grandmother could verify.
“My grandmother works on Saturdays. She took off today to get here, and she can’t keep taking off to come here, and then you come here, and this is what you get. It is really sad they allow senior citizens to have to come here and stand in line. You don’t know what their health conditions are that would prevent them or hinder them from standing for long periods of time to be here.”
We spoke with Lisa Greene-Lewis, a CPA and tax expert with TurboTax, to see why tax filers would be asked to verify their identity to receive their tax return. She said it’s to protect the filers’ identity and to verify they did in fact file the tax return in question.
Genesis Harris, his wife and their five-week-old baby took public transportation, three buses to get to the office.
“I have to be at work on Monday, and so I am trying to figure out how I am going to do that at the same time I have to work all day. We go online, trying to figure out how to do it online, and it says our online services are currently unavailable, so now were at a standstill. Stalemate.”
The IRS provided KPRC 2 News with the following statement regarding today’s closure.
“The IRS has surged resources to expand in-person service, opening or reopening more than 50 new walk-in centers over the past two years and ensuring they are fulling staffed. The IRS has added more than 11,000 additional hours of availability this Filing Season, making this the most hours of in-person service the agency has provided in our history. Delays on Saturday occurred due to overwhelming taxpayer demand for assistance, and the IRS is committed to serving those who weren’t able to receive in person help. For people we couldn’t serve in person, we are collecting names and numbers when possible so an IRS representative can call them back. To further assist taxpayers in the Houston area, we will be taking special steps to help on Monday and throughout the week. We will be working to fully staff our offices next week and adding more people to help on our phone lines. We also remind taxpayers there are many ways to get help from the IRS. We encourage taxpayers needing assistance to schedule an appointment by calling (844) 545-5640. Many issues can be resolved over the phone to help people avoid a trip to an IRS office. Taxpayers can also get an automatic extension to file until Oct. 15 by visiting IRS.gov.”