HOUSTON – The Internal Revenue Service Taxpayer Assistance Center in southwest Houston tells KPRC 2 it will not stay open late Monday, despite stranding hundreds of taxpayers over the weekend with an unexpected closure.
The IRS office on South Gessner is scheduled to be open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
James Johnson was in line at 2:00 a.m. Monday. He was one of hundreds of people who tried to get help Saturday after they were instructed to appear in person to verify their identity to receive their tax returns.
“He’s a very hard worker so you can’t imagine Saturday, he had to stop working just to come up here for that to happen,” said his daughter Gabrielle Jacob. “It was horrible.”
Saturday, the line of frustrated taxpayers stretched close to half a mile with hundreds queued up for help, only to find a sign on the door that read, ‘THIS OFFICE WILL BE CLOSED TODAY.’
An IRS representative is assuring everyone it is business as usual Monday, with additional staff brought in to assist taxpayers. But the representative told KPRC 2 reporter Bill Barajas the office will not stay open past its regular closing time.
Saturday was a true mess.
Angela Harris lives in Conroe and drove down early Saturday morning. When she saw the line, she left. She came back hours later only to see the ‘CLOSED’ sign.
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 Saturday 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 said it has expanded services and added more staff, especially in-person, to help this year.
“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,” the agency told us in a statement.
“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.”
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