My Letter to IRS Will Never Be Read

In today's endless stream of horrifying news about the second Trump administration, the New York Times reports that 22,000 IRS employees have signed up for DOGE's latest resignation offer. This is one-fifth of the total IRS workforce.

What does this have to do with me? In 2020, I mailed our tax return from Hawai‘i where we lived at that time. I had to mail it because I'd made an error on a Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), and I had to appeal the penalty in writing.

Foolishly, I didn't send our return and the letter via certified, registered, or whatever service you're supposed to that ensures the thing gets there. The postal clerk asked me if I wanted to do that, but I said no, joking that I trusted the U.S. Postal Service. I was smiling when I said that, but you never know what postal clerks interpret when you're trying to be pleasant or funny.

After the mail carrier tossed my letter in a bin, I said mahalo, and left. Who knows what she did with my mail after that. But I know that my return did not ever reach the IRS.

For the past several years I've contacted IRS by phone to inquire if that return made it. I've gotten several mailed replies, saying the issues will take more research and time. This has gone on and on. In December 2024, I wrote another letter, including a copy of our 2020 return and the letter I'd attached to it about the RMD. I thought to myself, well, I'll finally get this monkey off my back.

Then Trump was elected, and he put Elon Musk in charge of destroying every federal agency that Trump and Elon don't like. IRS is one of them.

With 22,000 employees quitting, what do you bet that one of them has my letter on his/her desk?

I sincerely doubt my letter will ever be read. Our return will never be accepted. And my question about a mistake on my RMD withdrawal will never be answered. Oh, and there was a $176 refund we were due, if the RMD mistake was forgiven. What about that?

There's a difference between shrinking government effectively and destroying government functions. Trump and Musk appear to be doing the latter.

As long as Republican sycophants in the House and Senate silently allow this, our agencies will begin to disintegrate, and our citizens will begin to suffer.

I know that Democrats are fighting this. But if you are a Republican reading this, please contact your representatives and ask them to stand up for the rights of every American to receive the services our tax dollars pay for. Federal agencies were created and funded by Congress, not by Donald Trump. And he or Elon have no right to destroy them.