Friday, April 10, 2009

When You're Right, You're Right

We got a notice from the IRS saying we owed a considerable amount of money. It should be noted we did our taxes Feb. 4, and the so-called error was discovered a week later. They waited until Saturday, April 4 to notify us, no doubt hoping we were unprepared to find all of the needed documentation or time to contest it.

I knew this because there's a place you can go to find out the status of your refund. (Hat tip to my friend Annie for telling me about this site.)

One entire day was spent trying to find someone at the IRS who could tell us what we needed to do to correct it, believing our tax preparer somehow had made a mistake. He was adamant he hadn't messed up. The IRS reps were just as sure they hadn't either.

Yesterday my husband, with some legwork by our daughter, finally got someone at the IRS to very reluctantly right the wrong -- their wrong.

So I celebrated this tiny victory but major cash saver the only way I knew how: I signed up for a 5k.

15 comments:

Lily on the Road said...

Good for you to be on top of things, our tax people are down right rude!

Sweet that you signed up for the 5k, have fun!

Glenn Jones said...

Yeah - but have your heart rate and blood pressure recovered yet?

Jessica DeLine said...

yay for the 5k! I got one of those IRS letters and they gave me like 9 days to submit proof they were wrong. So I did. It was a weird stock option reporting thing from back in 2007 that made it look like I didn't pay taxes on a bunch of money but I did. nice that they gave me a whole 9 days to provide proof.

AKA Alice said...

Gotta love it when one of the "regular folk" beats the IRS...Congrats

Anonymous said...

Louise says...OH YA BABY!!! Enjoy every stinkin mile of that run, well deserved!

tryathlete said...

It's really annoying when you know you're right, and have to do all the work for the other party in the wrong just to show them that, well, they are wrong. If they only expended half as much of that energy in defending themselves into rigorously checking out their procedures... it seems like a lot of organizations work this way nowadays - they can't be bothered to correct something, so they tell you you're wrong, and wait for you to do THEIR work for them. Well done to everyone in your family for your patience. Now, for each step of that 5K, just imagine you're trampling on the face of an IRS rep.

Laura Lohr said...

The IRS was wrong? WHA?

Which 5k?

teacherwoman said...

How frustrating is that. Grr. Glad to hear you found the perfect way to celebrate!

Sunshine said...

Oh thank you for sharing a great story!!

21stCenturyMom said...

Well done!

I'm thinking of allocating a piece of my refund to race fees. What better way to spend 'found' money?

Donald said...

Ugh - that tax story is like a bad dream. I'm glad it had a happy ending.

Deene said...

yay for being right! Have a great time at the 5k.

jeanne said...

doesn't it just FROST you how if you were say, a bazillionaire, the whole scenario would be SO MUCH DIFFERENT? nevermind.

you vs IRS? my money is on YOU! and I was right! and so were you! there's a nice feature story in there!

TNTcoach Ken said...

Is that like taking down the man?

Middle-of-the-Pack Girl said...

totally awesome Anne, that you got it fixed. I hate the IRS.
Sorry to be out of commission for the last few weeks.