Thursday, May 20, 2010

Fighting the Feds.....

I wouldn't mind arguing with the IRS so much if you actually got the chance to argue. With a person. Instead you get a nastygram from them, you send a polite letter of your own, you wait a couple of months, then they send you a different, milder nastygram.

We got a nastygram from them a couple of months ago saying we owed them a couple thousand dollars because we had not reported $10,000 in income from Dr. Pepper. That represented the Harley that Hubby won in 2008. Well duh.....the motorcycle wasn't worth the $10,000 that was reported, but we had the bill of sale and we didn't report the difference. That must have confused the heck out of somebody (or some computer), because they just couldn't quite make it add up.

When I got the nastygram, I (gritted me teeth and) wrote a polite letter of explanation with all the necessary documentation.

Today we got another nastygram from them, and apparently they have seen the light about the $10,000 discrepancy. There was another oversight, however, a $31 dividend or interest or something from Hubby's investments. That $31 apparently threw us into another tax bracket (or two), because THAT cost us $270. Don't report $31 - pay $270. And they're not saying that's a penalty; that's our additional tax.

What. Ever.

I think I know why people fly planes into their buildings.

On one hand we feel like we won, because they are no longer insisting we pay them a couple thousand dollars. On the other hand....

$270.

For a $31 mistake.

I can't make it add up.

Neither can I make Hubby SHUT UP.

1 comment:

Maggie said...

Remember the days of old math, new math and then new math again? this is government math. you will never figure it out.