Tuesday on the Reference Desk

April 15 is the day library staff used to dread. The entire world would converge on the library for forms, to use the Xerox machine, to ask us tax questions we couldn't answer.

For me it was the end of a whole season of misery. I used to work in a two floor library. The children's department was on the ground floor and the adult section upstairs.
The tax forms were upstairs. We had a sign on the door SAYING the forms were upstairs. One year I made a sign that went the length of the inside hallway saying "Tax Forms Upstairs", complete with arrows.

And still, every year from January to April, people would enter the children's department to ask where the tax forms were!

We also had fun (not) with volunteers from the AARP who were trained to do taxes for low-income folks and seniors, and set up shop twice a week in the long corridor between the children's department and the program room. Every Wednesday I fought a battle with several of the tax people(most notably a puff gut who was a retired Army colonel) because of the fact that the kids and the programs were making noise--I mean, so what if it's a CHILDREN'S department--we're doing TAXES here!
Fridays were fine because I had no programs and they could set up in the room. And to be fair, several of the gentlemen were sweethearts who helped me move the furniture in and out of the program room.

And have I mentioned the boxes and boxes and BOXES of tax forms that filled the hallways?

Nowadays most people do their taxes on computers and we get a minimum number of forms. The state doesn't even send us their forms any more. We have no meeting room so there's no AARP staff.
It's a lot more peaceful, but I still got several tax question phone calls during my ref stint today.

One was from a gentleman having trouble filing his state taxes. In Virginia you can file for FREE on the state site--you can just plug in info from your 1040Whatever.  Apparently he'd had some trouble doing it correctly (probably because he wasn't READING it carefully), but I gave him the web site address and told him where the tax file info is. Taxes aren't due in Virginia until May 1 anyway.

Second call was from a guy needing a 1099MISC, but the IRS website says the one on line is wrong, and if you use it you'll pay a $50 penalty. Huh? We don't have the form, it's a business form and we mainly have the personal ones. Suggest he call the Big Mausoleum a.k.a. our main branch--they probably have more forms. Wonder what sort of business he's running that he's not ready to file on April 15, and wonder why he doesn't get someone to do the forms for him.

The peace and tranquility that is now April 15 was broken however by a very large, very crazy lady who went ballistic when I got her name wrong by one letter for a computer sign-in, told me that the other name was EVIL and that if I called her that I was labeling her 903456, whatever the heck that mean, and then told me I was stupid. To which I told her that she needed to be polite because I was trying to help her!

Several minutes after logging in she came over to the ref desk and told me. "You have to treat me like an ordinary patron, even if I do have an orange passport (HUH?). You can't impose any of your right wing tyrannies on me (boy have you got a wrong number lady) that's the law!"

I told her "You're right ma'am," and she walked away.

You know, maybe dealing with the tax crazies was simpler than dealing with the Internet crazies!

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