Thursday, April 15, 2010

Illinois' Tax Day e-filing snafu still not fixed

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who just yesterday tried to hire a kayaking czar, wants to raise the state income tax by 33 percent. However, when I tried to file my state income taxes online this morning, my TurboTax program informed me I was missing my PIN. No biggie, just click here, Turbo told me, and I'd get that PIN.

But instead, I received this message, "The IL-PIN Inquiry System is currently down for maintenance. Please try again later or call 1 800 732-8866 to use the automated PIN Inquiry System or speak to an agent."

Since, amazingly enough, we have a very small refund coming our way, I don't have to drive to the nearest post office that is open until midnight--the downtown Chicago location, to avoid a fine.

Here's what NBC 5 Chicago is saying:

Illinois residents who waited until the last minute to file their taxes are going to have a difficult time doing so on-line because the Illinois Department of Revenue's pin application site is currently down and will likely remain so throughout the day, officials say.

That means anyone who hasn't filed online before will need to call an 800 number in order to get their pin so they can file online.

But here's the rub: the provided 800 numbers give a perpetual busy signal because so many frantic tax filers are calling.

“What can I say: It's April 15th," said IDOR spokeswoman Sue Hofer. "This is why we encourage everyone in the state to file early."
As for why I'm filing "at the last minute." We needed clarification on a couple issues with my wife's employer. We got that done, but yesterday was my first day off from work in over a week. This morning I went through the numbers one more time, but then bang, zoom, and finally nothing from Springfield. My federal return was successfully submitted.

"What can I say: It's April 15th." Can you imagine what would happen if Amazon said something along those lines if a similar occurence took place on the Friday before Christmas? How many people would be fired?

It's 11:00pm in Illinois. And the PIN issue is still not solved.

Luckily we can fire a whole bunch of Illinois polticians in November, including Rod Blagojevich's former running mate.

"What can I say, it's Election Day?"

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