Irs Vs The Va

[71M10]

Greetings all:

Would like to share an observation with you all:

I filed my IRS 1040 tax form with form 8863 for educational expenses. I filed on January 20th, it was accepted on the 25th and then within a week I was informed there would be delays for anyone who filed the form 8863 with their 1040. They didn't start processing those forms until February 14, 2013. I was notified my tax refund hit the bank this morning.

When I filed the paperwork to keep my son on as a dependant after 18, in October 2011, I also completed the information for his college attendance. I included the letter from his high school with his expected graduation date. His acceptance letter for college, the receipt for his advanced enrollment deposit, his orientation and draft schedule for fall of 2012. In May 2012 (after contracting a congressman) they put him back on the award (never should have come off). However they then informed me that he was coming off June 2012. I asked about the college information I submitted and they informed me they could only do one school action at a time, I would have to re-file. I refiled in June 2012 and am still waiting. Even after discovering that M21-1MR was changed in February 2012 instructing Regional Offices to not remove dependents from awards if their is clear intention that they are continuing school. Seems the VA form, Acceptance letter, Deposit receipt ect. should have clearly meet that burden of proof.

The window for completion was 12/27/2012 through April 27, 2013. It's status in eBenefits is received. nothing else.

Its pretty bad when the IRS who has no mandate to be non-adversarial can process a more complex form with 200%+ more data points and computations than the VA School attendance form. In fact the IRS processed my 1040 and put the money in my bank account in 1/3rd the time it took the VA to even register that I had filed the second (unecessary if they followed their rules form) form. What makes this even more shocking is I filed in vonapp and it took 97 days for the VA create an entry in the pending claims for this action.

Lastly, the IRS receives a whole lot more 1040 forms than the number of claims the VA receives.

It is pretty clear that the "Grateful Nation" really isn't so Grateful after all. Or is the saying "On Behalf of a Grateful Nation" at a service members funeral only uttered because the government is grateful they passed away and will no longer be drawing benefits!

Sorry this really doesn't serve much more than a rant. However, I challenge everyone on this board who files an income tax form to send a letter to the editor of your local paper comparing and contrasting the timeliness of the IRS compared to the timeliness of your local VA. Maybe enough of them would get published to draw some attention.

Lets shoot for sending these letters in on April 9th, maybe they would make the Sunday edition the day before tax day.

Isn't it interesting that we have to file taxes on the anniversary of Lincoln's death, Coincidence?????

Best regards,

Edited February 27, 2013 by 71M10

[Sgt. Wilky]

All I can say is, "excellent point!"