Office of Tax and Revenue

After electronically filing my tax return I received a request for additional paperwork from them, I think to verify my DC residency, because I recently moved to DC. I submitted the new paperwork 1 – 2 weeks ago and haven’t heard anything from them, so I thought I’d call and verify that they received what I mailed.
Unfortunately, their office seems to live in some kind of time warp; there is no email or voicemail contact information and 5+ attempts at different times of the day and days of the week to call have just left me with «All our lines are busy. Please try again later.» before being forcibly disconnected from the line.
Per another Unilocal review below, going to try the Problems Resolution Officer line and see if that’s any better. It at least seems to have voicemail! If this fails, I guess I’ll have to attempt venturing there in person.

Impossible to reach with questions. Their tax forms suggest that part-​time DC residents must file via paper instead of electronically (which seems odd and inefficient). I’d like to confirm but can’t reach them. The Office’s website provides a telephone number as the exclusively way of contacting it – no e-​mail, chat, etc.
Meanwhile, I’ve called many times. Every time, the call disconnects after playing the following message: «All of our lines are busy. Please try your call again later.»
At this point, I’m just going to file a paper return. It’s less less work than getting them on the phone.

This organization is a fine example of typical D.C. bureaucracy. They are unresponsive to taxpayers and intolerant of being told that they have issues with their records. If you don’t have to deal with them, avoid them like the plague.

Today, July 20, 2015, had an absolutely great experience at both the Office Recorders of Deeds and Cashier Office. I signed in the Clerk gave me a form to pay the cashier and said he would have copy of my release of lien ready once I paid and bought the form back. He was true to his word all personnel were very professional. My total time there was less than 10 minutes. Great Job!!!

Unresponsive, questionable and abusive practices. They claim I owe taxes for 2010 and assessed penalties and interest when I never even lived in DC for 2010. Apparently they partake in an abusive practice whereby they send letters to all individuals who received a tax refund while at a DC address and assert that they owe taxes for the prior year. This affects anyone who moves into DC between January 1 and April 15 of a year and who files taxes using their DC address.
They will demand a copy of the taxes you filed with another state (very difficult to combat if you live in a state where no income taxes are due) — even where the statute of limitations has closed (3 years, generally). In other words, they attempt to establish liability and put the burden on you to disprove that you lived in DC and force you to dig up tax filings that are now outside the statute of limitations.
Calls to the agency have gone completely unanswered even though the message machines of the agents includes language that they will call me back within 24 hours or the next business day. My agent is Jerome Gibson and Mr. Gibson has been completely unresponsive. Prior letters I wrote stating that I never lived in DC were also disregarded.
This is an extremely abusive tactic that they are using and is onerous to anyone living in DC. Others have also written about these tactics and how abusive they are:

A total mess.
1) Their customer service lost a letter I submitted in person, in their office. Absolutely «no trace» of it, or of my visit.
2) When I faxed another letter, they told me I would get an answer in 10 days. It’s 30 days and counting.
3) Most shockingly every time I call I get conflicting statement on what my due balance is (!). I asked them to send me a balance statement. They said they would do it, never got anything.
Boy, don’t you love DC?

The DC Office of Tax and Revenue is every hardworking, tax-​paying citizen’s nightmare. While DC’s local government services have improved dramatically in recent years, OTR is a throwback to the «bad old days» when bad attitudes and poor service were the status quo. Calling them on the phone is a joke. On a good day, you’ll only have to be on hold for 45 minutes, and on a bad day, every time you call you get an error message saying «all lines are busy, please try again later.» To try and resolve my issue, I went in person. Although I met with a «supervisor,» I was shocked at her total lack of knowledge about the tax code, or even how the tax forms work. I would have been more successful talking to a rock.
However, there was light at the end of the tunnel. If you get the runaround from the OTR, I strongly suggest calling their Problem Resolutions Officer (PRO) at (202) 442‑6348. To be clear, they are only going to help you if you’ve already tried to resolve your problem through the normal OTR channels, but how about this for great service: after getting no communication or help from the OTR for months, the PRO had my issue resolved in two hours! She even gave me a nice call back to tell me that the problem was resolved, and five days later I had my refund!
So, if you too have issues with the OTR, I strongly suggest contacting the PRO. You can also take your grievance to Twitter (
), which is actively monitored by members of the city council and seems to get swift action for frustrated taxpayers.