I wanted to take a moment to leave a heartfelt review for R. Tate, who works in Offer in Compromise…read morewith the IRS. Like many people, I was honestly scared going into this process. The IRS has a reputation that can feel overwhelming, and I chose to complete my Offer in Compromise on my own instead of hiring a CPA or accountant--which made it even more stressful and time-consuming. Throughout the process, I had a lot of questions and moments of uncertainty, but R. Tate was absolutely incredible. She was patient, kind, and took the time to answer every question I had without ever making me feel like a burden. Even when things got complicated and I had to go through the appeals process--which ultimately ended in my favor--she continued to support me and guide me. What truly meant the most to me was that she went out of her way, even calling me after hours (despite being two hours ahead), just to personally let me know that my application had been approved. I was in tears. That moment meant everything to me. I know the IRS can get a bad reputation, but R. Tate is one of those rare people who genuinely cares and goes above and beyond to help others. Her compassion, professionalism, and dedication made a very stressful situation feel manageable, and I will always be grateful for that. Thank you, R. Tate. I truly appreciate you more than words can express.

I file my own taxes and I am strongly opposed to taxes but for the sake of living here I have to…read morefile them and I do not want to go to jail. I recently got a notice from the IRS saying that I owe " X" amount of money. The thing is though is that I paid my taxes when I amended them in February and they took out my money from my bank account. I get a letter saying that I owe the same amount that I paid initially the only difference is that they added 34 cents on the IRS end. So all these guys really coming after me over 34 cents perhaps ? I wanted to call and correct them on this because I'm being held hostage about paying my taxes yet again before a certain deadline or I'll be paying more interest for something that they should see in their own account that they took out of mine. Unfortunately there is no one to call and navigating the phone call it's like walking on eggshells . I want to say I've tried about 50 times to call the IRS and I was unable to get a hold of a single human. Overall, I know I will get this money back one way or another. Maybe one day we will be like all other countries where we don't need to pay for having to get our taxes filed and like most modern countries do. Whatever happened to those 86,000 agents that you hired last year that you're not talking about this year? Did he all get laid off because of AI taking their jobs? Do better! Oh! And Taxation is theft

To be clear this is a review of the facility and parking and not a review of how DHS does business…read more I came here a couple of times for meetings with my GOVT customer. Since I am a Defense Contractor I have to get a badge and go through their security. I must say they are very polite and efficient. They get you screened and badged up rather quickly. The issue with this location in parking. They do not have visitor parking and there is not even enough parking for those who work daily in the facility which has several BLDG's. I have had to circle around for over 10 minutes hoping for an open spot on the road in front of the facility both times I have came here. I will now add 30 minutes onto my schedule to allow for me to find parking when I come here. The facility is made up of a hodge podge of BLDG's that are in OK shape. Since DHS is a fairly young entity the BLDG's were renovated when they took them over. I don't mid coming here except for the parking issues. I guess you could Uber here but it is kinda of out of the way from hotels and would be expensive. I didn't see any taxis around either.

This is a review of public access to DHS, not the way DHS accomplishes its mission…read more I took a taxi from downtown DC to an appointment at DHS. The taxi driver had never been there before and didn't know the procedures to drop off a passenger. It sure didn't help when the guard started shouting at the taxi driver instead of calmly explaining what he wanted him to do. Once inside the visitor processing office, the folks were relatively easy going and pleasant. Note: American University Park is not a part of DC where taxis cruise the streets, especially on rainy days. After the meeting, I finally walked to Massachusetts Avenue where after another five minutes a taxi picked up this wet passenger.

My review is for the department that handles Treasury Direct. The year my Mother died I…read morecoincidentally joined the United States Savings Bond Program Offered by my employer. I was always recruited to handle these activities at work. After being trained about the program I was sold. Then I was responsible to promote it at work to coworkers. I realized unlike my parents I needed to save more for retirement. Plus I was good at sales since I bought into the program myself. For the next nine years I purchased a $500 EE Savings Bond monthly for $250 each. The bonds reach $500 value eventually and keep earning interest for 30 years. The first four years we were getting 4% interest. Then the government decided to fluctuate the interest with the markets. My first four years of bonds have been locked in at 4% interest all these years. They couldn't (or decided not to) change that promise. Those I will cash in last as the need arises. Around the year 2008 they took the program online. You could create the account in the Treasury Direct Program and purchase or cash in bonds using the online system. They said Goodbye to paper savings bonds. One day with Nine years of paper bonds in hand my daughter and I sat at the computer and entered each one into my new online account. Afterward the account is finalized when the Treasury receives the paper bonds. You mail them certified to Treasury Direct. Over the next ten years (approximately) I periodically checked my balance. Then finally in 2019 I needed to start drawing on the bonds to meet expenses. I drew $5,600 and $2,600 was interest earned. The program has been excellent to deal with. I received an email that my 1099 was on line well in advance of January 31st. I noticed the box wasn't checked about tax responsibility. It should be marked Yes, or No. I know it is interest earned and put the income on my 2019 tax. A few days after I mailed my tax sure enough an email arrived from Treasury Direct saying that there was an error if you print your 1099 through their website. The tax requirement box appears blank. They apologized and corrected the error. I guess they corrected. I didn't check. I'm no dummy I know it's taxable in my case. If you cash EE purchased after 1989 and use the money for education expenses you get a tax break. That's not my case. They would get Five Stars except this is the only Treasury Program I use. Overall I like them. They get my tax check too! I'm glad they use my tax for savings programs like this. I've made more interest all these years than in a brick and mortar banking institution. Even if I pay tax on half of what I draw out I'm happy. Forgot! They don't offer joint ownership of EE Savings Bonds yet as far as I know. Or at least mine can't be converted. Mine were purchased in trust for my daughter. My daughter has to deal with it when I'm dead!

Our nation's Capital houses many of the necessary departments to run our country. The building is…read morebeautiful and it has the Albert Gallatin statue in front.

The only federal agency along the National Mall, the USDA used to be the world's largest building…read morewhen it was built in the first part of the 20th century. It's not open to the public, but after reading an article about a man named Wayne Connelly, I reached out about seeing the official unofficial museum inside. Wayne texted me a time and I joined a small group on a 3 hour tour of the building and museum of items from the USDA's history. It was a special and meaningful tour!

I am filing a complaint against an inspector (a lady) don't know her name, she was rude and yelled…read moreat senior tenant here at Windwood Manor Apartments in Collins, Mississippi. The apartments are managed by J&A Property Management in Corinth, Mississippi. The tenant has been living there for over 5 years and has never broken any rule or breached the lease in any way. The complex has 18 apartments and is for seniors and the disabled only. (THE ADA will be notifed immediately). Has always paid his contracted rent on time, never missed a payment. The senior is 65 years old and disabled,(has several ailments), but on the afternoon of Feb 23, 2024 there was a monitoring inspection of the premises and certain apartments and mine happen to be one of them. When they (the Apt manger , MS Candice Barns), knocked on my door i opened it up for them to come in and do their inspection but there was a lady with her, she had long greyish brown/blonde hair and instead of coming in a doing the onsite inspection, she yelled at me about a generator I have outside on the porch and a gas can that's been here for over 5 years that I Use when the power goes off cause we have tornadoes down here (especially spring coming up 2024, and sometimes the power goes off for hours at a time and I need to turn generator on cause i have COPD and have to medical equipment that takes electricity. The first thing that came out of her mouth was not hello, how are you but "You can't have a gas can out here", "You can't have a generator out here with gas in it", (how else is it going to run without gas in it?, what about all the cars in the parking lot that has gas in them, they are explosive too),. I was trying to ask her if they are going to reimburse me for food that gets ruined if power outages happen, and my medical equipment I need (COPD), (she continued walking away). I tried to tell her I have been using it here for a long time and no one has never said anything to me about it. I told her I have signed 6 different leases here and this place has gone through 5 managers in 5 years and no one has ever said anything to me about not having a generator here to use, and there have been monitoring inspections as well and Randy (a monitor) has never said anything before in almost 6 years. But when I was trying to converse with her about it she just kept getting louder and then she finally said "Your Done", whatever that means and the apartment manager and the monitors never did come in to do the inspection (I don't know why), even though I opened the door and invited them in. I ask the apartment manager MS Barns if she wanted to come in and do it she said no, then left. So I walked up front to try and speak with her about it again to get clarity on what she said, and she would not speak to me cause she said '" I yelled at her", when I did not yell but I did raise my voice cause she was talking over me and several feet away from me and walking away about 100 ft away. I think she needs to be nicer to the tenants, she acted like a dictator and tyrannical. As I stated I can't think of her name but the apartment manager knows, the other one with her was a guy his name is Randy. I am willing to get rid of the generator if it is against the law, but I haven't read anything in Mississippi law that says it is unlawful to use a generator at apartments, or any federal law. But if someone can show me after 6 years that I'm breaking the lease by having a generator here, then I will move it to another location. I told them we can go to court if they want to.. Please help me in this, give me some guidance and I thank you. Windwood Manor Apartments, #18, 2799 Highway 49, Collins, Mississippi 39428. I have included a photo of the gas jug and generator at issue with her? I really enjoy living here but I do have rights as a citizen and as a tenant. The inspector is from USDA Rural Development....Collins, Missisisppi...

I had never used the BBB before and I so do hope that I never have to again, but after the total…read moredisaster with Ticket Philadelphia and getting no feed back or satisfaction from them, I noticed they were a BBB supported business, so I decided to contact them. I had even yelped my heart out on Ticket Philadelphia and all Melissa could say was "it happens" while she laughed. If you will all remember I had spent over six hundred dollars to see Wicked and begged weekly for my tickets to arrive until I finally demanded they be FedEx'd two days before Christmas. Once in our seats and trying to enjoy the production we were interrupted continually with flashlights and asking us to get up and show our tickets by different ushers! Anywho, I am still livid, but the Better Business Bureau does really care and they got right on it and their contact was Melissa and all of a sudden Melissa cared! Back and forth the BBB went through Melissa ( who lied, lied, lied ) about what happened and I would not let down and continued to reply through the BBB from my end of it. When the BBB first contacted Melissa, I had no idea why Melissa was all of a sudden contacting me and offering me six tickets to one of four upcoming productions. I told her I would think about it, but I really just wanted my money refunded and she said that would not happen but she did refund the service fees for all the tickets. So thanks to Kelly N. from the BBB we enjoyed an awesome show this past Sunday with great seats at the Merriam Theater and I got a little bit of my money back. Knowing I was not fully satisfied and knowing that the Academy of Music's manager told me that Ticket Philadelphia was known for this, the BBB said they would definitely keep my notes in their files of Ticket Philadelphia. The BBB is a nonprofit organization and can not lead or mislead any business into doing the right thing, but when they speak, businesses do listen. Kelly and the BBB rock!

Very good experience with "Anabela's Gallery Fine Art Studio". Both the art and framing are high…read morequality and she is responsive to her clients.

Never thought I'd give a government agency high marks, but here's five stars for my passport…read morerenewal. I did expedited service thinking I'd get my passport in about 14 days but I got my new passport in 2 days! They sent me an email letting me know they received my application, and sent another email letting me know it was approved. I got my passport that day! Thank you for the excellent service. This is one instance in which my expectations were surpassed.

Security was slow and the space where the book fair was happening was too small for the attendance…read more Also, they have a huge Lichtenstein?

It's just very unsanitary for human beings. No one should have to live in those conditionsread more

As an activist for Children's rights, I have on occasion been incarcerated for acts of civil…read moredisobedience, that is in fact part of my job, to bring about awareness of a terribly unjust family and juvenile court system. America's ANTI-family and Juvenile courts make rulings which in all honesty result in the abuse of our children and they make these rulings for what amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the states, counties and their employees every year. In any event, The jail in Washington DC, is one of the worst jails it is definitely a real s*** hole. Everything is stainless steel, I mean everything including the beds. This is obviously done so that they can keep the place clean and free of infestation. The inmates receive nothing, no pillows, no tooth brush, no tooth paste, nothing. I was not afforded the luxury of staying in my cell and relaxing in DC they have a very high turn over, especially so with activists. Again they institute scare tactics big time by leading you to believe you are a terrible criminal who has committed a crime against the government when in all reality, they are the criminals. We all have a first amendment right, it should in fact be our most important right but the government would of course rather you did not have or exercise that right The jails in DC are very over crowded. Days are spent moving prisoners from jail cell to jail cell. Some cells are crowded to the point where 50-60 men are in a 12x12 cell, obviously one can not even sit down in that environment. The toilets are over flowing, hence the terminology, s*** hole. These jails are over crowded so they have a high turn over. Judges work 7 days a week and at least well into the night. This is pretty cool because in most counties if you are arrested on a Friday, that's it, you will not see a judge until Monday. Depending on your crime, that is if you have committed one in their state and not being extradited, you will see a judge within 72 hours, that is the law. However, Washington, DC is over crowded so they want to get you out. Of course everybody pays a fine, COURT IS AFTER ALL AN INCOME GENERATING BUSINESS. The food was sub par as jails go. Apparently the local inmates think it is pretty good but they have apparently not visited a true 5 star jail. The property is secure, the jailers are OK, nothing special here either. The new scam in many jails are the phone systems. Yes, you can communicate via telephone with an outside party but they must put a rather large deposit into the systems account. Calls are about $1.00 per minute, definitely a scam, fortunately the ACLU is onto this scam and should have this shut down or at least a fair rate charged . Speaking of the ACLU, all jails nationwide are now mandated to have panic buttons in the cell, I did not see a panic button... Like any jail, the objective is to scare you into not wanting to go and make you miserable while you are there so that you do not want to come back, Jails are all solitary, only the high tech, long term jails or prisons offer additional comforts. Butte County is just a jail, no big deal. If you are in jail for a righteous cause like children's rights, no one can break you down. I rate this jail a 1 on a scale of 1-5. They could have better food and treat their prisoners better. It is not necessary to be an ass and a jailer, I mean, you met your just being an ass.

My appointment was at 10:20 to complete a Representative Payee application. The process took less…read morethan an hour and I walked out the door by 10:59. Ms. Gallagher was kind, efficient and very knowledgeable and she throughly explained the process and gave me pointers on how to succeed in my new role.

This scam is an oldie but goodie whereby a very authoritative "Detective" from the FBI calls from a…read morespoofed number to inform me that my SS number has been used in a crime along the Texas/Mexico border and my account has been frozen until I cough up a trove of personal information and perhaps pay a fine of $2,000 to make the entire incident go away. I would have played along just for grins but I was busy and just told the "Detective" that I would call the local FBI and SS offices in the morning to confirm. Click. And just like that my career as a border bandito and fugitive came to an end. Basically. If the SS administration wants to get in touch with you they'll write a letter instructing you how to respond or where to call. If a call of this type finds you it is one hundred percent bogus. Hang up... providing no information whatsoever. There's no shortage of scams out there ranging from 50% off your cable bill (for a small fee) to more insidious hackers trying to infiltrate your PC or laptop with malware all in the name of "security." Stay safe out there. Five stars just because.

The Social Security Administration is located in Washington D.C. Social Security has local offices…read moreall over the United States. Initially I had to visit the office to set up my retirement benefits when I retired. Since then Social Security has developed a website and made many technical improvements over the years. All of my business is handled online. I also get periodic emails from Social Security. Today to my surprise I received this email applauding the passage of the President's Big Bill. I have to admit I was hoping that the campaign promise made regarding tax relief for Social Security recipients would come to fruition. As much of a skeptic as I am, I'm not getting excited until the dollars are in my bank account! There's two things for certain DEATH and TAXES!

I am a guardian for a loved one. I had an appointment to have two details taken care of. It was a…read morechallenge to get a live person on the phone. I held for 45 minutes and then opted to get a call back. Someone called me back. The employee helped make an appointment. I thought I would have to make an appointment in the state my loved one lived in. That was not the case. So I made an appointment near me in DC. The appointment time was for 11:32, not 11:30 - but 11:32. It was explained that there might be a slight delay in between visits. I showed up an hour and a half early since I had a ride. The building is behind The Bureau of Engraving and Printing. I was happy to have been dropped off. There isn't nearby metered parking. Smithsonian Metro is close by. There is a check in kiosk when you enter. You can use the kiosk or check in on your phone. Cell reception was only noticeable by the window. You can scan a QR code to check in on your phone. I checked in at the kiosk. Numbers are not called in numerical order. They are called by your appointment time. There are approximately 60 metal seats that are relatively comfy. There is always a guard in the room and at the exit door. The restroom was clean. The only seat with an electrical outlet is the first one by the entrance (smaller section of seats). My number was called before my appointment time. Numbers are not called in any particular order. Number 19 could get called before number 2. The employee verified some details and then had me return to the lobby area. If you need to provide any information during your appointment, look it up before you go. My phone was in SOS mode until I left the building. I was called for my appointment on time. There was more privacy at the windows across from all the seats in the waiting area. The employee was very nice. He helped with all the paperwork I needed for my tasks.

Solid first experience with this office of the Social Security Administration. Organized (mostly)…read morewith a good system for handing out wait tickets. Staff is great, from the security guard that was so helpful, to the bureaucrat with the sense of humor that helped me out with my Social Security card. (I suppose having a sense of humor while dealing with the public is a must!) Please note that the line starts forming before the office opens at 0900. And that they have reduced hours on Wednesday. In and out in less than an hour while dealing with the government - I call that a win (that never happens at the DMV!)!

HORRIBLE!!! Was on hold for 1:55.40 seconds and they still never picked up!! Can't find proper…read morehelp anywhere anymore. Y'all should be ashamed!