Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The IRS Is Trying To Kill Me

That title sounds like I should be wearing a tin foil hat talking about how the government is coming to get me.

Really they're coming at me in a much more subtle way. They're trying to exhaust me from this process.

As I've said before, we filed our taxes in early February. The absolute earliest time we could after getting all the paper work needed. There were delays and resubmitting of all our paperwork, but we thought it was finally over in June. We were expecting our money by June 26th.

Instead of our money we got a letter going over the money we were getting and there was a major mistake in it.

We tried calling the number they gave, but they basically told us we had to write a letter saying everything we said on the phone. Why?

So Adam wrote a letter and even included a basic math problem explaining it. We faxed it immediately. We called to be sure they received our fax. They said they were reviewing it.

Okay, so anyday now we would get our money.

We checked our account daily.

Hmmm.

Where is the money?

We called again.

They said, "We're still reviewing it but you will either have your money released to you or be asked for more information within 30 days of the time we received your letter."

Okay, good. We know they didn't need any new information (I joked that I would send a vial of blood if they needed) so we finally had a solid date we would have our money. July 22nd.

Then yesterday I received a letter saying they're still reviewing our letter and we will have an answer by September 5.

WHAT?!?!

Tears immediately started rolling down my face. I've been juggling our finances for months and there is nothing left to juggle. We need that money now. Our savings account is empty, we've gone deeper into debt, and our checking doesn't have enough to pay the bills. That's it. Game over. We need the money.

I called the number they gave and a guy who couldn't have cared less about me said they're reading mail from May so it will be weeks before my letter is even read. I didn't even know what to say to that. It really didn't make sense.

I said that the disputed amount is tiny compared to the amount they've already said they owe us so I asked if I could just have the undisputed amount. He said that could be done in cases of financial hardship. Okay, great, that's us. Give me my money. He said we would have to talk to a taxpayer advocate and he gave me the number.

I had heard about tax payer advocates but was hoping this would not come to that.

I call them and the lady was awful to me. She said they are very busy and unless my house is about to go into foreclosure and my utilities are being shut off, they won't help me. I tried to talk to her about our situation and she got mean and said they can't help. I was crying and she was yelling at me. Perfect.

I'm going to start paying all my bills with a letter saying I'm reviewing their request for the money I owe them and I'll let them soon whether I need more information or I will release money to them.

Other fun things going on: 

The inspection on my car is up and I know a lot needs to be fixed.

6 more days until my appointment

Jayden is working on two year molars and nobody in this house has slept in days.

After all that complaining, I'll leave you with two cute pictures:

Jay running on the beach on Friday.

Jay playing with his cars yesterday morning.


And a cute story:

We have a book that we read to Jay a lot. Last night rather than let us read it, he insisted on being the one to read it to us. It was mostly signing with some words mixed in, but he "read" the whole book to us. I was dying. He even acted out the parts we do. It was so funny and so cute.





11 comments:

  1. I think you've been asked this on twitter, but have you considered contacting your government representatives and maybe even the media? It's ridiculous that it takes that long. And I can't get over the rudeness on the phone. I know the government isn't always the happiest place to work, but an attitude like that would make it even more miserable.

    Good luck!

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    1. Yes, Adam sent a letter to our congresswoman yesterday asking if we could get some help with getting the undisputed amount of money so we can pay bills. Who knows if anything will come of it, but I'm willing to try anything at this point. Thank you!

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  2. Ugh, I can't believe that this keeps happening to you. Is the hold up due to the adoption tax credit again? Just ridiculous. Keeping you in my thoughts. Praying for a speedy direct deposit.

    xoxo

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  3. This is awful!! And those rude people were unprofessional!! [[Hugs]]

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  4. Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. I can't believe they're being so difficult to deal with! This just breaks my heart that you have to go through this right now.

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  5. Oh hun, that is so awful! I hope so much that this is resolved soon, that is ridiculous!

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  6. Another avenue for help is the North American Council on Adoptable Children. They gave me advice when we getting ready to file. Try sending them a detailed email about the steps you've taken and maybe they can do something? Info(@)nacac(dot)org

    The image of you with a tinfoil hat cracks me up. :)

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  7. I can only imagine your frustration. I have heard of people who have gotten interest because the IRS is so far behind in giving them their adoption credit.

    I hope they get you your money soon!

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  8. They did the same thing to us. I was finally contacting the offices of my Senators to try and get help. You can also call the IRS inspectors office to find out more.

    Sorry. It sucks.

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  9. I'm sorry you're going through this. We finally got the opportunity to pay our taxes last week. Wait? Did I just say that? Yes. My husband got a miraculous bonus at work and we were finally able to pay the $1400 we owed in taxes. We never owed before so this was all new, and we didn't know what we were going to do. So were really needed that miraculous bonus for other things. We know the juggle game well. We have $25 to last us until next pay day, and we have past due bills. Our electric bill is due today, so yeah, dunno what we're going to do. Oh well. So needless to say, I'm not much of an IRS fan right now although I didn't have to talk to mean ole people over the phone. They're just bleeding us dry.

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