Ask HN: Why does this online IRS form have an hours of operation?
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online
So aside from the obvious jabs at IRS and snark like
“Last call on Hacker News. Come back again tomorrow!”, anyone have any idea why this form has an hours of operation?
8 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 28.6 ms ] threadBest guess: The back end processing is actually performed by humans at the IRS office in DC and the form is simply an online "request" to one of those humans. And the office where those humans work is only staffed from 7am to 10pm EST.
It /could/, yes. But then one has to also understand how govt. IT development works. You only get, barely, just what you ask for, and nothing more. So the likely reason for no queue is that whatever PM was responsible for writing the requirements that the IT contractor developed towards did not think to add a queue for 'after hours' requests.
And now, it is likely without a 'development budget' (as the bean counters considered it 'done' when it met the initial requirements) and with no 'development budget' allocation, there is no way to get a queue added.
Short username the equivalent of a low /. number. Unfortunately, -1 Insightful isn't possible in the more groupthinky HN.
My guess is it’s some ancient mainframe or even pre-mainframe app that is running on batch jobs that still require production control overseen by humans.
Federal budgets aren’t like private sector. They don’t just allocate $2B for the IRS commissioner to use as best suits the business… specific programs and tasks are authorized by congress. In the case of IRS, there’s a group of people in congress who are dedicated to IRS performing as inefficiently and ineffectively as possible. (For some things, earned income credit enforcement is fully modernized and effective)