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.