Anyone have experience with a tax advocate?

Our amended returned was mailed Feb 4th and still has not been processed. The IRS told me they were hooking us up with a tax advocate. Any idea on what I should expect?

Should I be :scared:

They are extremely helpful.

but I'm not so sure about the U.S. Postal Service.
Did you file a paper return? Did you send certified mail?
Also, have you gone to www.irs.gov and tried the "Where's My Refund?" feature?

Never heard anything about it at all. I called a few times and they told me to call after twelve weeks had passed. I did and was told that no action had been taken on the amended return. In other words...nothing was happening to it.

Today I was told they were hooking us up with a tax advocate and to expect to be contacted in 7 to 10 days. The 'Where's My Refund' feature doesn't apply.

I have no idea what to expect or anything. I'm a little nervous about it.

In my old job (for a **govt** agency, of all things, and a state agency funded by SSA(!), so they certainly should have known better) they had us misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees. After I lost my job, I filed with the IRS, saying that I felt I'd been misclassified. It took a couple of years for the IRS agent to FINALLY decide I was right (I think she dragged her feet because she didn't want to stick it to a govt agency).

Well, at the time I filed the original SS-8 (the form to question ind. contractor vs. employee status), I filed "protective claims" for the previous 3 years, in order to preserve my statute of limitations (and a damned good thing I did, since the decision took frickin' forever). Well, after Ms-Dragging-Her-Feet-Lady FINALLY decided I was right and that I *had* been an employee, I filed amended returns for the years in question. The IRS bullshitted me around, saying my statute of limitations had run out, they didn't have the protective claims or some such bullshit, BLAH, BLAH. I finally got a Taxpayer Advocate, and IIRC he got things straightened out relatively quickly. I eventually got quite a hefty refund of the back excess FICA tax I'd paid, plus interest. (the money, or at least the interest, was taxable on my return for that year, however :-( )

ACK- just remembering how long the whole damn process took pisses me off all over again.

It also really pisses me off that SO many employers misclassify workers as ind. contractors. :mad: :mad: Gets them out of paying benefits, Workmen's Comp, unemployment (had to fight like hell on that one, too) etc., and means the worker can't file with the state's merit protection system. Asssholes.