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Mon 3 May, 2004 06:01 pm
Well, it ain't easy to tell this little tale without a large measure of embarrassment, so here goes anyways. I got my tax done this year by a tax company, because I owed the IRS an amended form from last year and I did not want to learn how to fill out said form. I got my regular taxes done, plus the amended taxes and had it in the mail on Feb. 7. The man at the income tax store said I could put both returns in the one envelope to ensure the one that owed got figured from the one that payed. So far, so good. Even without the $112 they would keep because of the amended tax form, I stood to collect over $2600. After more than six weeks of waiting, during which time I recieved multiple notices to pay the figure owed on the amended form, plus interest, I called to ask about when I would be getting a check. Friendly woman there, helpful sort of; she said there was no return for me in the system. This meant my return was lost, she said. I filed a second time, on the computer. My wife actually did this one. After it was filed, she had second thoughts. "I don't think I did it right," she said four or twenty times. After a respectable length of time I phoned the IRS people and was informed that if I submitted my return over the computer when I said I did, it would be in the system now. It was not in the system. I refiled by telephone. So, from Feb 7 to now, what do I have to show for my efforts? A piece of paper recieved today telling me I have filed multiple times. "Please fill out the form and submit it so that we can process your taxes."
edgar, not sure why you'd be embarressed so much as furious.
Gala
I have never minded paying in, as I like to have highways and other necessities. I begin to get a bit jaded when it takes 3 to 4 months to get a refund.
I went online to the irs site called Where's My Refund? It said the refund was being held up. !!! I just got off the phone with the IRS. The representative said my return is being processed, along with the amended form from 2002. He said to wait two or three more weeks and call back if I don't have the check by then.
Now the "Where's my refund?" page of the IRS site tells me I will get the check by June 22nd.
Being held up. Now, that's certainly informative, isn't it?
It tells me nothing. That's the IRS for you.
Unbeknownst to me, Mrs edgarblythe sent an email to a local television personality/consumer advocate, named Marvin Zindler. His people told us today, "Oh no; June 22nd is out of the question. Sign this authorization for us to act on your behalf." I only signed to make the story more interesting. They've already ruined any pleasure I would normally get from so sizeable a refund.
Correction to my last post:
The person that got in touch with us was prompted by the Zindler contact, but she is from the IRS. After she told us we would soon be getting our refund, she went about her business and we waited. I saw on the Where's my refund? page that they put another hold on the check. We contacted the woman again. She said that she took the hold off and we should get the money this coming week. Sounds hopeful, but the page on the net still insists there is a hold on it.
Today's version of "Where's MY Refund?" is this:
Scheduled to be transfered to my bank tomorrow, the 11th. If it does not get in my bank account after all, wait until the 18th to complain about it, as there will be nothing that can be done before then.
Woke up this mornin
The check was in the bank
Woke up this mornin
The check was in the bank
Been searchin ever since February
But they just want me pull my wank
But I woke up this mornin
And the check was in the bank
Doo-wah
Congratulations, edgar. That whole ordeal was undeserved.
They charged me all kinds of interest on the 112 dollars after telling me there would be none.
Maybe I should reread this, but you say they owed you money (the refund) and you had to pay them interest?
I sent an amended return for 2002. In order to avoid mistakes, I hired a professional to do my taxes this year. He advised me to send them in the same envelope, which is what precipitated this comedy. I owed 112 and they owed 2674.
On May 1st, I got a letter in the mail from the IRS saying i owed them $1000 from 2001. They said i didn't pay enough then. It also stated the reason I didn't pay enough in 2001 was stated on the second page. The second page had about 20 reasons why i could have underpaid covering the front and back of a letter sized piece of paper. For example:
"You may have taken more credit then allowed for one or more possible deductions."
I hate the F$%@ing IRS. A great example of an oversized government incapable of handling much of anything efficiently.
I ignored them until they told me they were going to file a judgement, which they are very effecient at, and paid them so they would go away. I spent a day and a half on the phone trying to find out why i owed them so much, but decided to just pay them. Another thing they are alright at doing: extortion by frustration.
I sympathize fully. The times they notified me my check was being further delayed, they told me nothing on the phone.
Phone? In my recent skirmish (at work) with the NM Dept of Revenue, I left messages daily for over a week before getting a return call. We have an IRS office even in this small town - unlisted phone number. SS Administration - also unlisted.
The IRS official that eventually helped me was local. Prior to that I called Austin, usually to an assigned number with a case number to report. Only thing, the person would tell me they found something to hold up my refund, but I could never coax the exact nature of the problem out of them.
I would almost bet the vague answers meant the person thought you should be getting it, but wasn't totally sure, and didn't want to be quoted by you to the next one you talked to. Things happen that way, sometimes.
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