Toll-Free Line’s Hours Extended : Last-Minute Taxpayers With Questions Have IRS’ Number

Procrastinating taxpayers tend to ask more intelligent questions than their forward-looking brethren, according to Joe Cordak, one of about 50 taxpayer service representatives manning telephones the weekend before Monday’s midnight tax return deadline.

Cordak estimated Saturday that about 40 Southern Californians an hour were taking advantage of a special toll-free line set up by the IRS.

By calling 1-800-424-1040, he said, taxpayers can have their questions answered from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. today or until 6:30 p.m. on Monday by service representatives normally available only during business hours on weekdays.

And the tenor of the last-minute questions? “More intelligent than during the week,” Cordak said.

In particular, he said, he was impressed by questions regarding what he called “earned income” credit. “People can’t really believe that they can get back more than they put in,” said Cordak, referring to a program he described as benefitting families who have children and earn less than $10,000 a year. “When they find out, they are relieved and happy.”

Which, in turn, brightens Cordak’s day. “It makes us happy when we can really help somebody,” he said. “We want people to call in to have their frustrations relieved.”

Occasionally that job is made more difficult by callers who put more stock in what their neighbors have told them than in what the IRS has to say.

“We spend a lot of time trying to convince them that the neighbor hasn’t given them all the facts,” Cordak said. “Sometimes people are reticent to answer questions because they feel we’re prying.”

But the “great plurality” of callers, he said, benefit greatly from the service. “You’d be surprised at how many simple questions there are that people don’t really understand.”