ASK Musings

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Thursday

23

October 2014

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COMMENTS

Well That Is Disconcerting

Written by , Posted in Random

A few months ago we got a notice from the IRS saying we hadn’t paid our taxes for 2013. We had (and had the fat chunk of missing savings to prove it). Of course the notice arrived after 5 p,m. on a Friday, but I was able to get a hold of someone and after a couple of hang-ups, an hour on hold, and some frustrating moments, I confirmed that it was an error. Before that my only other run-in with the IRS was due to an old business license. Their system didn’t update that I had closed that business with no income (I’d gotten it so I could do consulting work if needed when I moved back to Seattle), so I thought maybe this was yet another attempt to collect taxes from defunct business. Especially since it was addressed to my given name and not my current name.

Nope. Nothing to do with our 2013 taxes, or my non-existent business. From what I can tell, someone screwed up, and I might owe a whole lot of money (like, high four figures). It looks like a company I had securities with is reporting that I made X amount of money from that, and I didn’t report it as income, so I owe about 20% of X, plus a bunch of penalties and interest. First off, I never got that tax document. If you know me, you know how super duper anal I am about things like finances. If it turns out my information was wrong, and I do owe that money, I will pay it, although I’m not okay with paying penalties or interest because I didn’t actually do anything wrong based on the information I had. Also, because I’m so anal, my first thought was to log into my accounts and look for late tax documents, or something I could have missed, but the ones I view don’t match up. If they were there and they matched, that’d be that. But it’s a little hard to prove the negative of I never got it (although the fact that it still isn’t here does help).

Oh, and did I mention that this is from two years ago? Not last year, but 2012. So I’m even more confused, because why didn’t that information come out when they do their regular checks in the twenty months that have passed since that tax year ended. But thanks to some advice my mother gave me when my checks were stolen in 2001, along with my last experience with the IRS, plus Austin’s general calming influence in my attitude, I didn’t lose my shit. I didn’t pick up the phone and try to get someone to answer all my questions. I ate my dinner, turned on a crappy movie, and started doing research so that I could figure out what to say when I do finally call tomorrow. Because the reality is I might end up having to dig super deep into savings to fix an error I unintentionally made in 2012 (if it all ends up being correct). And me being angry about it right now, or being short with the unlucky IRS agent who takes my call, isn’t actually going to change any of that.

Holy shit, you guys. I think I’m becoming an adult. Weird.

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