4019 IRS again.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

I am livid!

To recap:
The IRS had sent me a notice that I owed an additional $61,000.00 in taxes for 2012, which was patently ridiculous.  It turned out Schwab had sent info on trades that did not include the cost basis.  I sent it all off to The Angel, who sent in an amended 1040, which showed that I should actually be getting an additional few hundred in refund for 2012.  I don't know who screwed up, or how, neither do I care, as long as it gets fixed.  The IRS refigured my taxes using the new amended 1040, and sent me a letter saying that I will be getting a check for $121.00.  Why the reduction from Angel's recalculation?  I don't know and I don't care, as long as the IRS goes away.

Ok, that's where it stood as of mid-February.

Early last week, I received a check from the Us Treasury for $127.82, dated 2/23/15. Duh?  Is the extra $6.82 interest?  Seems a bit low for interest....

Last Monday I received a letter from the IRS, dated 3/2/15 (yeah, dated the same day I received it), informing me (again) that I would be receiving a check for $121.00 within the next two to three weeks.

Um, what?

Yesterday and today I spent literally hours on the phone to the national IRS number and the local IRS office trying to find out why the difference, and can I get into trouble for depositing what appears to be an incorrect check (which of course I have already done), and will I really be getting another check in the smaller amount, and if so, what do I do with it?

You will not believe the problems I've had getting through.  There's the usual "high call volume  try again later".  There's the enter your birthdate, month now, two characters, so I enter"10", and hear "must be two characters" along with a kindergarten example of what two numbers look like, but I already know, because I can see the "10" I had entered on my phone's screen, so they say to enter the month again, so I do, and again I see the 10 on my screen, and the mechanical voice says "call again when you have the information", and HANGS UP!!!

I finally managed to get through on something like the fifth try and got on the queue, "calls are handled in the order they are received, so stay on the line, do not hang up", and listened to horrible jangley music for 40 minutes, when I heard the music stop, and a clicking sound, then silence --- silence long enough, about 5 seconds, that the cell phone figured the line was dead, and DROPPED THE CALL!!!!

I went to the IRS website, and there's no way to ask my question there.

I called the local IRS office.  They don't see people in person.  All inquiries are handled by the phone system, which, by the way, has no option to leave a question to be answered by a human, and,by the way, rejected my two-digit birth date and hung up on me THREE TIMES before I was able to get to the part where I could ask (sort of) about the 2012 refund, whereupon I was informed that I would be receiving a check for $121.00 in two to three weeks.

And people wonder why I hate telephones.

And the IRS.
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