Crofton Online: Scary Things at the IRS
IRS to Crofton Resident: 'Pay Us $2,912.03 Or We'll Take Your House!'

I admit it, I always put things off until the last minute, especially unpleasant things. So it should come as no surprise that at 11:30 PM last April 15 I was racing down to the post office to make sure I got my, no, not my tax return, my tax extension request , postmarked before midnight.

The extension is automatic and I had bought myself until August 15. You guessed it, I mailed my actually tax return on August 15.

Anyway, six weeks ago the IRS sent me a letter saying that I owe them $2,912.03. The only explanation was that "You incorrectly figured or transferred your capital gains tax." I was directed to pay up.

That just didn't sound right. I use MacInTax software, and it seemed very unlikely that the program had made a mistake in figuring my tax or in transferring amounts from one form to another.

I put the letter in the pile of ridiculous things to do and forgot about it, but the IRS didn't. They sent me another, nastier letter last week that threatened me with garnishment of wages and forced sale of my house. So this time I called them.

[HINT: When you call the IRS, or any other large organization with voicemail, pretend that you don't have a touch tone phone. You get to the same person only much faster.]

They asked me to fax them a copy of my return! I guess they hadn't kept the copy I sent them. Anyway, I obliged, and they immediately found their mistake. Someone had key entered $2030.00 from my form as $203,000.00. They apologized, corrected the mistake, and I am free again, although I still don't have anything in writing.

Here is the problem with all of this. Yes, I know key entry mistakes are made, but was there no error checking software in use at the IRS that could have caught this? The dollar amount miskeyed was a total of other numbers, transferred from another form. Certainly the same key entry mistake wasn't made on both forms. My software would have caught such a mistake.

And what about the meaningless explanation that the IRS originally gave me? They spent two pages describing the method they used to compute the interest I owed on money I really didn't owe, but not two sentences telling me what the mistake actually was. I must admit, at one point I almost wrote them a check for $2,912.03, assuming that their computer must be smarter than my computer. But I knew if I did that, the great state of Maryland would then demand money as well, based on the modified federal tax bill.

What about someone who doesn't have the time or the patience to deal with bureaucrats? How many people would feel completely intimidated and just pay up to avoid further trouble?

And why did I have to fax them a copy of my return anyway?

Jonathan Inskeep
Crofton, Maryland


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