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Jamestown IRS Office Was Handled Poorly

Thank you, U.S. Rep. Tom Reed, for intervening and keeping the IRS’ taxpayer assistance center in Jamestown open three days a week.

There are people for whom a trip to the Buffalo office is virtually impossible. Perhaps the Jamestown office doesn’t need to be fully staffed five days a week, but part-time hours are certainly helpful.

We can’t help but imagine the surprise county Planning and Economic Development Department employees had when people started knocking on their door to ask why the IRS office in the BWB Building, 201 E. Third St., Jamestown, was closed.

The office has been closed more than a month, though no one but those who needed help with tax questions knew until The Post-Journal’s Jimmy McCarthy went to a meeting next door to find out that county employees had to post a notice on the door notifying those who needed the IRS’ help with their taxes that there was no one to help them. A call to the Jamestown IRS office found that walk-in assistance hasn’t been available since Jan. 3. Even after Reed’s intervention, no explanation has been given by the IRS to tell people why the office was closed in the first place.

There may be perfectly good reasons for closing the walk-in office. The number of people using the office may have decreased to the point it made no sense to pay for office staff.

There can be no good reason, however, for closing the office at tax time with no public notice. Given the unchecked spending that has run rampant through the federal government, one would think there was money in the federal budget to pay someone to hang a simple sign on the door. After all, how much would a piece of paper add to the federal debt?

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