It being tax season, I feel I must
relate a story that I have experience more than once in regards to
the Infernal Revenue Service.
After selling our business 18 months
ago our tax situation changed, leaving us with some tax liabilities.
The sum owed wasn't overly large and we worked out a payment plan
with the government to allow us to pay it off over a period rather
than paying it in one lump sum. Any tax over-payments we made during
the following tax year(s) would be applied to the balance we owed. So
far so good.
Over the past few days both Deb and I
have been trying to find out the balance of what we still owe and up
to this point we've had no luck. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Between the
two of us we've spent hours on the phone, being transferred from one
IRS flunky to another, and on more than a few occasions, being
'accidentally' disconnected and having to start all over again.
Searching the IRS website has also been
a frustrating and futile effort, with much of the information there
pointing us to the very same phone numbers we already called.
What we're getting is a bureaucratic
runaround.
This isn't the first time I've had to
deal with this particular bureaucracy and I'm finding today's
experience no different from the one I had some years ago.
Way back in the dark ages – 1996 –
I left he company I'd worked for for almost 20 years, receiving a
huge severance package. Because of the paperwork involved with this
package, I wasn't able to file my 1996 taxes on time and filed for an
extension. I also cut a check for an amount approximating what I
believed I would owe to the IRS. Once I received the required
paperwork in August I filed my taxes, including a check for the small
balance I still owed – about $150 – and waited to hear back from
the IRS, knowing I'd have to pay some interest on the last $150 I
paid. And I waited...and waited.
Both the original check I'd sent in
April and the one I sent in August had been cashed by the Treasury
Department, meaning they'd received my return, yet I heard nothing
from the IRS. Even inquiries I made got me no answers.
Four years passed...
...and I started receiving letters from
the IRS asking why I hadn't filed my 1996 taxes. It was the beginning
of a seven year battle with the IRS, with me proving I had filed my
taxes, including copies of the extension I had filed, a copy of my
return, and copies of the canceled checks. Then doing it again. And
then again. And again, ad nauseum. Even the IRS taxpayer
advocate couldn't understand why I was having problems as I had proof
of filing.
Every time I thought it was all settled
I would get another dunning letter from yet another IRS office
warning me I hadn't filed my 1996 tax return, to contact them or face
dire consequences, starting the whole thing again.
It took seven years to straighten out
the mess and in the end I owed something like $1.37 in interest to
the government. Needless to say I have little faith in the
bureaucracy that is the IRS.