I’ve been fighting the IRS over a stupid mistake made for over three years ago (my former mortgage company didn’t report my mortgage interest properly.) It involved several phone calls, several letters, and a lot of general bitching. Today, I finally got a check from them for $4100, based on a mortgage my partner an I held jointly that year. Never give up on these people (and the reps who answer your calls ARE people.) The IRS’ll rob you blind if you let them.
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Scotty
Heh.
Scotty
I know it has nothing to do with the IRS. But, oh well.
Incertus
Anyone will rob you blind if you let them. I’ve had far greater problems with mobile phone companies than I’ve ever had with the government, and it wasn’t until I made complaints to federal and state agencies that they even acknowledged that I had a legitimate beef with them. They found in my favor both times.
JL
Michael, Do you really think that our tax dollars are going to highly educated people?
jrg
If you send your taxes in using snail mail, be sure to send them certified with a return receipt. The state revenue dept lost my check this year, but I did not have to pay the penalty because I could prove I sent in the check on time.
Apparently the revenue dept hires temps to open all the mail and sometimes they throw out checks (which pissed me off – If I have to spend several hours preparing my taxes, they should at least treat the mail with a little caution).
Always cover your ass when dealing with the government. Document everything, and keep the docs together in a safe place…
Be sure not to check your tire pressure, though. If you do that, you’re nothing but a latte-drinking elitist commie dhimmicRat. Real Americans should deflate their tires to 10 PSI as a statement against Marxism and government waste.
Just Some Fuckhead
You do mean ‘never give up on the money’, right?
dmhlt
Congrats! Perseverance pays.
Now when are you going to spring for a sumptuous supper? I’m hungry!
gypsy howell
I’m guessing they’ll leave you along for a few years now that they had to shuck out $4100.
not that you should try to take advantage of that, of course.
;-)
p.a.
Many many years ago the IRS over-refunded me by $50. My W2 was poorly printed and they read a 30 as an 80. My return was correct, but they wrote a larger check than the amount on my refund line. Well, not wanting to be flagged in the future if they eventually corrected their correction, I pointed out the error. (Like I said, this was long ago and I was very young).
I was working on the road, so it took about 6 weeks for the phone calls and paperwork to get through the system. They sent me a bill for $51 and change- they charged me interest on my correction of their mistake!
Ed Marshall
Today I caught a story about some guy in Milwaukee where a $5 dollar parking ticket morphed into a $2500 dollar fine and the court foreclosed on his house. There is no backstory or comment because whoever it is is still hiding but WTF?
Yeah, judges get pissy with contempt but there has got to be a line somewhere.
jbarntt
The IRS’ll rob you blind if you let them.
I’m suprised to see you disagree with John Cole, who doesn’t favour standing up for the letter of the law when it comes to paying income tax. You might want to read his post “Standing up for the little guy”, where he is very critical of those who do so, as you do also.
Does Cole know that you are evil like the companies he describes ?
Sinister eyebrow
I’m surprised you actually got the money back from the IRS. Usually, once they get the $$$ they will never let go.
So, the $4100 was the $200 they owed you plus the penalties and interest you applied for their holding your money all that time, right?
MFA
p. a.,
One year I calculated I would owe the IRS about $1,200, but I needed some time to save it up. I filled out the return to the point where they allowed you to check a box to have them calculate the tax for you, and sent it in, expecting them to send me a tax bill for it. I’d done it before, more than once, and it was a pretty convenient way to buy time.
A month or two later I received an envelope from the IRS; but instead of a tax bill, it contained a check.
For $63,982.00.
It turns out they’d keyed in an extra zero or two on my withholding. Against my evil nature (which was to park the ‘refund’ in an interest-bearing account until they contacted me) my wife* convinced me to call them and straighten it out. It took almost a year, multiple exchanges of letters with multiple copies of the form I’d submitted (luckily I’d saved a copy), and I had to fight off their demand for penalties and interest (for their mistake). In the end I paid them the $1,200 I originally owed. But I made a photocopy of their check for a keepsake.
*She divorced me a year or two later. She was kind enough to return the ring, but I figure she still owes me $64k. ;-)
Bey
Interesting that you would put it that way, since that is precisely what the IRS would have done if the situation had been reversed.
a. pismo clam
a similar thing happened to me. I was innocent, but the IRS were fining and penalizing me for what they thought was fraud two years in the past. (Good high school math example for why compound interest really matters — the government will make you take it up the ass with a daily-compounding rate when they think you’ve done something wrong.)
it took two years before it was all resolved in my favor. It had reached the point where they were garnishing my paychecks every month. (The payroll department called to say, “we’re just telling you this as a courtesy — we have no choice in the matter.”) Then suddenly I get a check for a few thousand dollars, no letter, no explanation. “Sorry” would have been nice, but a few grand sweetened the day enough.
ever since then, every piece of mail I send to the IRS is registered, return receipt. Document *everything*, and never give up. unless you’re guilty, in which case you should go out like Cody Jarrett in White Heat: “Top of the world, Ma!”