RIP my 12 round heavyweight battle with the IRS

Happy Monday everyone!  It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to notice I’ve been a bit absent lately… if I listed all of the reasons it would unfortunately be one of the longest posts in the two and a half years I’ve been posting here at SAFTM.  So I won’t.  :) Suffice it to say there’s been quite a bit keeping us apart… I’ll post some catch-up posts about most of them over the next days and weeks though, hopefully as I start to  get over each of the humps…

Friday was a big one though!  It wasn’t a ton of money (about $1,000), but it took up a lot of time and brain energy.  I’ve been battling the IRS since 2010 and finally convinced them that they messed up and I don’t owe them anything!  Wahooo!

It all started in 2010…. it was a whole pile of stupid.

My wife and I pulled together our 2009 tax forms and sent them to our tax guy.  We had our first kid in 2009 and my wife stayed home with him, so she only worked 6 months that year.  Like any busy and dumb guy I just took the pile of everything and sent it to our tax guy without checking them.  He put all the numbers together and sent me the docs to send in along with a BIG check.  It was really scary – like over $10,000!  But we moved from NY to NJ that year and I got a pretty good bonus at work, so we just wrote the check and moved on.

Three months later I get a letter from the IRS.  They had my check, 1099s, W-2s and everything but lost my tax return.  I asked my tax guy to resend it.  A few months later I get the same letter.  I asked my tax guy to resend it again.  A few months later I get the same letter.  I asked my tax guy to resend it yet again.  Then I got a call from my tax guy.

He screwed up.

He found two W-2s for my wife in the pile we sent.  Although they were obviously duplicates, he thought that my wife’s work just screwed up (because she worked almost exactly 6 months, so double the W-2 was about what she normally made).  So he entered the larger amount.  We hadn’t told him that my wife was a stay at home mom at  that point.  And I was so swamped at work I overlooked it too!

I know.  I was  dumb.

So my tax guy redid my taxes and we went a whole new return, along with a request for a $9,700 refund.  A few months later I get a check  for $9,700.  The end, right?

Wrong.  It was just the beginning.

Six months later I get a bill for a little over $1,000!  The IRS apparently changed something on my return and their computer thought I owed them over $1,000 – yes this is right after they approved my revised return and sent me a check for almost $10,000!

Over the next year and a half I’d spend Countless hours on the phone, finding records and telling, and retelling, customer service reps about what happened.  At one point, the IRS sent a letter to my work telling them to not honor my paycheck withholding deductions and withhold as if I was single with no dependents.  (I’m married  with two kids…).  I got that one cleaned up pretty quickly, but it was a pain in the butt and probably didn’t make me look to responsible at the office…

Then Friday, finally – FINALLY – they say it’s “all set!”  I was on the phone with a wonderful customer service rep who spent an hour and a half with me and was clearly committed to resolving the issue.  She asked me to put her on hold and fax her some tax records.  I did.  She had her supervisor there reviewing my records and call history.  She did.

And finally,  the words I’ve been waiting to hear:

I’ve checked and rechecked your return and your Schedule A.  The computer says there was a change made by the IRS on the Schedule A, but it doesn’t add up.  I’ve requested authority to adjust your account so that it is zeroed out and this issue is resolved and final.

Then I got put on hold for a few more minutes.  She comes back and says “you’re all set.”  Awesome.

The best part of it is they were holding my 2010 tax refund of $950 hostage and it’s now going to be released to me.  So I should be getting a nice little  check in the next few weeks!

Incidentally, I was pretty surprised with the customer service I received  throughout this.  I made well over a dozen calls that lasted a long time.  Not a single rep was anything but professional.  There was one time where the rep was a little condescending, but it was more her “tone” than anything (and I may have been a little sensitive too…).

Overall a good day.  I don’t usually count chickens before they hatch, grow up, get feathered, sliced up, breaded and deep fried.  But I have faith in this one.  I’ll let you know if it changes.  But I’m confident that there’s one less burden over here.  good  times.

Anyone else have a tax issue they had to resolve?  Is it just me or is their customer service better than most businesses?

Until next time, put your credit card down and slowly step away from the mall!

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