The Department of Revenue in Philly is a mess

“Philadelphia Revenue Department Resumes Door-to-Door Tax Investigations” — the headline floored me. I read on and learned that the Department of Revenue is taking its show on the road, verifying eligibility, confirming account information, and enforcing compliance. It was doing this, according to the article, to reflect “the department’s proactive approach to balancing tax compliance and taxpayer support while maintaining public trust in its operations.”

I laughed heartily.

If I’ve learned anything as a Philly business owner in the last 12 years, it’s that the Department of Revenue is so dysfunctional that it doesn’t even have the account information it’d be hoping to confirm, nor does it have much public trust in its operations left to maintain.

The announcement is posted on the department’s website, as well, instructing us on what to expect, why we might be pursued in this personal manner, and how to identify legitimate revenue agents so we don’t get scammed.

But if an impostor came to my door instead and took all my private information, I can’t help but feel I’d end up in the same spot I’m in now: chronically noncompliant with duplicate accounts and a collections agency after me, and hours and hours on the phone trying to have it all resolved.

For each of the last 12 years of being a licensed business owner in this city, I’ve been notified by the Department of Revenue that I did not pay the previous year’s taxes, despite having done so, and having proof of it.

I file my taxes, write a check, send it off in an envelope, and receive a letter a year or more later stating in big scary letters: “You have unfiled returns.”

This used to worry me. Eventually, I learned to just pay my bank for a copy of the cashed check in question, send that along to the department, and wait for them to mark the matter resolved without apology, and, infuriatingly, without explanation as to how it can consistently take money and not record payment. Still, I knew the drill, and I complied.

I now believe it’s my acceptance of this broken system that made it possible for me to miss the signs that things had become much more serious.

At some point in the last two years, the city duplicated my tax account and changed the entity type, blocked my online access, and sent me to collections for taxes I’ve paid but are posting to the wrong account. And it is doing it to a lot of other small businesses.

I’ve known for years that it’s not just me. During a recent casual meeting with a baker friend, she glanced at her email and feigned surprise at a notice from the city. Looks like she didn’t file her wage taxes again this quarter. Eye roll.

But it wasn’t until a few weeks ago, when my outrage and exhaustion pushed me to make a public post asking small businesses to share their experiences, that I understood the breadth of the issue.

What I had been laughing off as bureaucratic incompetence is actually widespread, egregious mismanagement resulting in suspended licenses, credit penalties, and identity mix-ups that can last for years.

Some people have thrown their hands up and moved their businesses out of Philadelphia. Some have decided to pay taxes they don’t owe, just to be done with the hassle or avoid more serious consequences. Others, like me, have chosen to take on the part-time job of fighting the department to clear our names, so we can continue operating our beloved businesses in our cherished communities.

Astoundingly, the dozens of business owners who reached out to me were in nearly identical situations to mine. Delinquent every year for taxes already paid. Accounts duplicated and sent to collections. On hold with the department for hours. Logging in to the portal on the newfangled tax website, only to be locked out because of duplicate accounts. Not to worry, an access code will be sent in the mail within the next two weeks. The mail! My neighborhood post office has been audited for not delivering the mail.

I did get ahold of someone, finally. A friendly and helpful person who could not help me. I know my account was duplicated because this revenue agent told me. I know the payments have been received, but not posted, because she could see them. I even know which account should remain open and which should be closed, because she spent an hour explaining it all to me.

But she didn’t fix it, and she assured me nobody would fix it until I garner proof from the IRS that I am who I say I am, and fill out the change form she’s popping in the mail. Once those two steps are completed, I must then send a message through the portal that includes everything she just told me on the phone, transcribing her own instructions back to her on how to make my two accounts one, bringing me back into compliance.

At no point did she mention that this is an ongoing issue, that the department had come across it at all before. Instead, she treated it as not only novel but as a problem of my own creation that I must work diligently and patiently to resolve.

And I will, because I don’t want my credit ruined or my identity mistaken or my license revoked. No, all I want now is to go back to the days when I’d pay my taxes and receive my delinquency notice in the mail two years later, for a single account with my name on it. I want to be unnecessarily pursued by a dysfunctional government agency that knows who I am.

Is this the best we can hope for in a department tasked with collecting the revenue our city needs to function?

In preparing to have this article published, I reached out to the communications office at the Department of Revenue, explaining the main points and asking for a comment.

I received a phone call two days later from the revenue accounting manager, asking me how updated I was on my situation, and promising to fix it. She didn’t know what the cause of the duplication was, but she seemed determined to not only put things right but discover the underlying issue that caused it. At least in my case.

The director of communications for the department, Christian Crespo, later responded: “We’d also like to offer assistance to the businesses that claim to have similar issues. Please feel free to put them in contact with me to investigate further.”

His email address is christian.crespo@phila.gov, and he’s ready to hear from you.

Amanda Staples owns and runs Germantown Kitchen Garden.