Back in 2010 Sheryl’s beloved mother Millie passed away and
she thoughtfully left us some stock. As
we understood the IRS rules we did not owe tax on what we inherited so when we
received the stock we sold it as we would just as soon have the cash. It wasn’t
a great deal of money, maybe enough to by a car… well maybe a crummy little Korean
car.
Then last year we received a bill from the IRS that nope, we
owed several thousand dollars from the sale of this stock! Ouch! I called our tax guy in Klamath and sent him
all our papers and he correctly deduced that what had happened was between the
day Millie passed and the day we had actually sold the stock it had increased
in value several hundred dollars and we only owed tax on that increase and what
we now actually owed the IRS was $100.00 Fine, Ok, Got it. I sent the IRS a check for $100 (and the tax
guy in Klamath a check for $275 for his fees).
Done! Wanna bet?
Three months later I get our check back and am notified by
the IRS that oops I sent the check to their office in California and it is the
wrong office. So I called the number, listened
intently to the options, pushed 7, held
for 10 minutes, then pushed 3 then 7 again, then a magic number, and a code,
and held a few more minutes and the nice man told me to send the check to an
address in Utah. I did. Over? Wanna bet?
Last month in the mail I get another letter from the IRS –
AND I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP – and a bill for $5.00 as we owe this as interest
because it took so long for them to receive that $100.00…and…no address to send
it to! AND IT INCLUDED FORMS TO FILL OUT SO I COULD HAVE INSTALLMENT PAYMENTS
WITHDRAWN AUTOMATICALLY FROM MY BANK EACH MONTH! For 5 bucks!
Call the 800 number, push 5, the security code, the personal
identification question, wait while we transfer the call, listen to bad
crackling music and finally get a guy with such a strong accent and high
faluten’ attitude that I finally gave up as he said there was an IRS office in
Oregon but I couldn’t possibly understand where. Five bucks!
On the internet I found an IRS office in Salem about 40
miles away and drove there with my crisp five dollar bill in hand. It looked like the DMV. Take a number. Sit
with the defeated, despondent and possibly deranged IRS sitters. Finally my
number comes up and no they cannot take my five dollars cash unless I see a
special agent. OHMyGod. Thankfully I had
my check book and indeed they took my check!
Wanna make another bet?
This week in the mail Sheryl and I both received individual
letters from the IRS that say actually we do not owe $5.00 (that we have already paid) it is only $4.89 and
because it’s such a low amount we are forgiven and our balance is now
zero! Wanna bet?
UPDATE: March 6, 2013
Today in the mail we received a refund check from the IRS for $5.00.
