Wall Street Journal
Budget cuts also have affected the IRS’s ability to conduct audits. The overall rate was 0.86% during fiscal year 2014, well behind the recent high of 1.11% in 2010 and 2011. Experts say the slide in IRS service has slowed all kinds of responses, from the processing of amended returns to audit appeals. Jonathan Horn, a CPA in New York, says it took two years of letters to four different IRS service centers, plus the involvement of the Taxpayer Advocate’s office, to secure a $250 refund for a client who overpaid Social Security taxes in 2012. The check came last week. “I refused to give up, even though the client told me not to bother,” Mr. Horn says.