It’s the Third Annual “Tax Filing Horror Contest” at taxgirl.com!
Have a horrible tax filing story? Car break down blocks from the post office? Ran out of paper in the printer? Dog ate your return?
Tell me your worst tax filing story – or simply complain about the thing you hate most about filing taxes – and win some great stuff.
Here are the rules:
- Post your tax filing horror story in the comments below. It can be as long or as short as you want. Please don’t include any personally identifying information that you don’t want to be made public (your AGI, address, etc.).
- Enter as many times as you like – but you must post a different story or comment each time. Linkbacks, while appreciated, don’t count.
- My normal comment policy applies (you can read it here). I have standards, you know.
- You must leave a valid email address (it will not be made public) so that I can contact you if you are a winner.
- Deadline is February 28, 2009, at 11:59 pm EST.
We don’t judge here. Okay, I usually do. But I won’t this time. Instead, I will randomly select the winner from all of the qualified entries. TEN lucky winners will walk away with free software from Intuit. Intuit has donated ten versions of TurboTax Deluxe (online version) for giveaways. The cards include a pre-paid access code that will allow one federal and one state preparation and e-file of TurboTax Deluxe online.
Depending on the number of entrants, I might throw in some cool taxgirl merch, too.
In this economy, you don’t get much for free anymore. So what are you waiting for? Share your story – the worst thing that ever happened to you while filing your taxes – or the thing you hate most about filing taxes – and win big.
I hate getting all of my stuff together and organized. If I would keep better organized records throughout the year my tax filing would be easier.
I used to do it all myself and all by hand without any software. And I usually waited until after 11 PM on April 15th to start hunting for the PDF forms online. I lived right next door to one of the few post offices open until Midnight. I’d walk out of my front door at about 11:55 and hand it to one of the postal workers on the sidewalk.
Now I pay a tax professional to just do it for me. I’ve contemplated just using Turbo Tax or something because I figure it can’t be that hard. It feels like he charges me $500 to punch some numbers into similar software anyway!
My horror story isn’t about one of my personal returns – I have a client for whom we had filed an estate return – which, not surprisingly, was audited, by the state, not IRS. We spent about 3 months getting information for and corresponding with the State only to be later informed by the agent that he had been mistaken and the deductions had already been approved by his supervisor.
We paper filed every year for years (of course). One year we mailed the return, and waited for our much needed, and much anticipated return. We finally contacted the IRS to see what the delay was after two months. We were told they never received the return, and that we should file again. We did, and received the refund in short order. Approximately one year later we received a letter telling us that we had filed twice, along with a short questionnaire asking us to confirm which was the correct return (they were identical in every way). We continued to get follow up letters every year. Eventually after many phone calls, the letters stopped.
Our return the following year was processed quickly and deposited in a bank account we didn’t even remember we had (I don’t know if I was tired, sleeping, or dreaming when I filled out the return, but something happened).
Here’s a story: At one time, I had two computers, an Apple and a Dell. I had been doing taxes on the Apple for about five years (OK, it was an old Apple) using Turbotax for Mac, and I always waited until the last minute. So, on April 13, 2002, I installed and updated my Turbotax and set to work. Everything went well until I tried to print and found that my laserjet was out of toner. Not yet discouraged or even forewarned, I went to the local computer store and bought a new toner cartridge. The printer broke while I was installing it (OK, OK, it was a VERY old Apple).
When I bought the Dell, I also had purchased a HP printer with Mac capability (on a newer generation of software than I had running on my Mac). I went back to the computer store, only to find that they didn’t carry it. After a great deal of searching around on-line, I was able to find and download the software. By this time, it was 3:00 AM on the 14th, so, off to bed.
After I got home from work the next day, I tried to install the new software –and blew out the monitor. Now I had a very old Apple paperweight, and no tax returns to show for it. By this time, it was after 9:00 PM on the 14th, so I called into work and declared a tax-emergency vacation day for the 15th. That morning, I went back to the computer store, bought a copy of Turbotax for PC’s, set up the Dell (I mean, it was still boxed at this point), and somehow got the Dell connected to the Internet (Wi-fi, no less, with which I had absolutely no experience) to update the program and download a state return. With a great deal of trepidation, I did my taxes on a PC for the first time. I filed my forms at about 10:45 that evening. The funny thing about all of this was that my company was going to PC-based systems, and I needed one to be able to take work home — the only reason I bought the Dell in the first place. Never let anyone say that a Mac-head wouldn’t do just about anything to keep from filling out tax forms by hand.
By the way, I’m writing this on my (now very old) Dell. And I’m planning on doing my taxes early this year, again.
Poor Melody would not have had to go through all that aggravation and expense if she (1) had prepared the return manually or (2) had gone to a paid professional!
TWTP
The reason I have old computers is that I’m also cheap! LOL
My horror story is from a client last year. Her in-laws had not filed a tax return in years, well none this century anyway. She had them call me and I found out the wife was self employed and the husband was disabled. They had not filed for they did not know how to figure the profit/loss from the business. I explained the information I would need to figure that out and she said she would work on it. 2 months later on April 13th she called and came in on the 14th, we first completed the 2004 return and they had a $9,000 plus refund, we had time to do the 2007 return and they had another $9,000 refund due to additional child tax credits and EITC, we did not have time to complete the 2005 and 2006 but made a time to complete those later in the year. The real sad part is that they feared they would owe tax and their 2003, 2002, 2001 return could be filed but they had waited too long to claim a refund.
A few years ago I was stuck at the office on April 15th waiting for one of my clients to pick up his return. All of my co-workers were out at a nice restaurant having a blast at our “let-down” party after working 70 hour weeks since Feb. My guy finally showed up about 9:00 and by the time I got out the party was winding down.
Six months later I was talking to this guy’s assistant on the phone and she says “I was going through his desk and I found this envelope with a 1040 in it and ‘sign here’ stickers on the bottom of page 2. Should he have mailed this?”
Unbelievable.
I was supposed to get a return one year for $236. I finally get the check in the mail, open it, and it is for $2.36. I forget how many people I talked to. Each one telling me something different. Some said to send it back and they’d send the difference. Others said to send the check back and they would send a new check for the full amount. I don’t remember now how long it took (a month or two I think), but I finally got a check for the full amount.
I usually do them by hand. I hate that it takes 4+ hours to do it, filling in line by line.
Last year I had a change of situation( early retirement w/401 K withdrawls using IRS rule 72T) and paid over $300.00 to a famous large tax preparing chain to do it for me. What I got was someone who just filled it out on a computer, reading instructions line by line and every so often shouting out “Oh Lordy!” when she came to a situation she never saw before. She had no more expertise than I did. Talk about frustrating. I’m going back to do it myself this year. What I observed last year in the storefront office last year was that this company is really no longer a tax preparation business, but rather a loan company, because they were really pushing their refund anticipation loans to all the poor customers who came in & left the time I was there.
This happened to me in the early 80’s. My dad was showing me how to do taxes and it had to be one of the first or second times I had filed. It was all done by hand back then with no computers to help!
I was filling out the forms and got to a field that required a calculation. The calculation resulted in a negative number. I check the directions and it did not state if negative put zero. So I left the negative and continued on filling out the rest of the form. I got back like $30.
Well, they kick it back. By the time they get around to checking it, I had already left home for collage. They send me letter stating I had incorrectly filled out the form, should of put zero. Well, being a new collage student, I wasn’t going to let the IRS push me around. I sent back a letter asking where in the instructions it said to put zero if negative. They sent back a letter with forms with the instructions highlighted stating “if negative put zero” on the line in question. The only problem was that the forms they sent back where for the year AFTER the year I had filed. I sent them back a letter telling them this. All was quite for a few months until they kicked back my return for the following year. Good catch on their part. For that year I got even more back.
This went on trading letters for a couple of years. I finally go tired of trying to work with them by mail and ended up going into the IRS office in the town I was going to school in. They had to transfer by records down and then me and the IRS agent sat down and went through everything I had done. So after 3 hours of sitting in this guys office with him doing research, he finally told me I was right.
I then asked him where I could send the bill for all the time I had spent fighting this non existent problem. He got a laugh out of that.
So for a $30 refund the IRS took 5 years to admit they where wrong. During that time, they offered to close it if I payed them $20 plus penalty and interest. They also kicked back two of the next 5 years returns (I got back more on these after I fixed the errors!)
No telling how much tax money was wasted on a snot nose high school kid who just read the instructions!
Please, bring on the Fair Tax!
I manage a tax preparation office. We do about 1500 returns a year. In 2002 we had the power go out for 3 days, starting the afternoon of April 15th. Most of the city was out so the post office and library were closed also. Noone could get paper forms and we couldn’t e-file or print. It was kind of hard to feel sorry for all the procrastinators. We did write a few letters for customers to the IRS explaining the situation and never heard anything about it.
These are great, keep ’em coming!
Two years ago I prepared our joint return, had my wife sign it and eventually mailed it. The next day I had the strangest feeling that I had not signed it. So, very foolishly as it turned out, I signed a copy of the 1040 and sent it (only) along with a note explaining that I think I forgot to sign our submission and, if so, would they please swap the 1040s. Not long after I got a note from the IRS saying that I owed a ton of money because I had not substantiated my claims on the 1040. Obviously the stand-alone 1040 was never mated to the original package. The next communication was a request to sign the form that I had not signed. That was the beginning of many letters and phone calls and frustration that I never want to go through again. Lesson learned: NEVER, NEVER send anything to the IRS unless they request it.
It was almost as bad as the time my wife sent a quarterly tax payment to the state using the wrong year’s form. What a comedy of errors!
I’ve never had to amend a previous return, but I just recently found out that I didn’t put my Roth IRA contributions, just my 457 contributions from work, on Form 8880 for the Saver’s Credit and missed out on an additional $80 credit. Not a huge deal, but just highly annoying that I missed out on it and would have to file an amended return just for that.
Does TurboTax Online (what I used last year) have any facility for making an amended return or would I be stuck filling out a new 1040 and 1040X by hand?
The first year I owned my new home, I thought I needed help so I went to a Tax preparer. I had to pay $124.00 and I also owed taxes and I wasn’t very happy with the service or treatment I got from the lady who helped me. I have always done my own taxes since I was 18 years old. I looked into turbotax and figured out how easy it was to do the taxes online and I was even more disappointed in having to pay for being treated rudely. I called to complain about my service and was going on to this guy on the phone, when he asked me if I graduated from “**** High School” I said yes, and he said this is your cousin…..LOL
Then I was embarrassed because I really did sound like a “**tch”…
About 2 years ago, when I was working at an AARP TCE tax site (paper return), a lady came in with a Consolidated 1099 statement from her bank. Buried in there was a 1099-B for a very large number of Mutual Funds and no cost basis (of course!). When I asked her if she had a cost basis for the funds she had sold I got a blank look and a reply of: “I sold mutual funds?” It’s not an uncommon response, I’ve found. Fortunately, we were able to get her bank financial advisor on the phone to ask for the cost bases. Unfortunately, in return, we were faxed an account dump (about 10-12 pages — fully covered in print — of account dump). I had to pick through that whole thing looking for the nuggets that I needed, including reinvested dividends and dividends for non-state municipal bond funds for the state return, some of which were also reinvested. Her whole return took me three hours, plus another hour for the person who did the quality review.
As a commentary on this situation, to any bank financial advisors who happen to read this column, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t do that to us. We’re only trying to help these poor people, and we’re only allotted one hour per customer to do it, although we’ll always take as long as needed. This lady left our site very embarrassed by the amount of time her return took (and mad about the capital gains taxes she had to pay). On the bright side, though, I don’t think she’ll ever forget about cost basis and capital gains taxes.
My tax horror story was for city tax. Being new to the City of Brotherly Love I knew that I would owe city wage tax and was surprised that the ‘temp’ agency I was working for wasn’t going to automaticially deduct and pay it (they were located in Vermont and said it was not their responsibility). So, even though they weren’t paying it I knew I was responsbile for it and was saving up for paying it. I started doing my taxes and contacted the Philadelphia tax officer at the end of March to get the required paperwork, etc. Imagine my surprise to find out that while federal taxes are due April 15th, city taxes were due on March 15th…and now I owed the tax plus penalties and fines! What a warm welcome to the city!
Suz –
I had the same experience. I was working in NJ and for the first year, thought that my city wage tax was being deducted (it wasn’t). I actually wrote the City a letter and told them that I wouldn’t pay the penalties because I didn’t think it was fair that there was no notice of the March 15 date (who knew?). They gave me a pass! 😉
Since I only had to file a 1040EZ, I was able to use one of those electronic Tax Filing programs. While at the school computer lab, I filled out the bulk of my return, but could not remember the return amount for the pervious year (the return took me quite a while because I had at least 3 different jobs for the year and had trouble with the education loan section. The next day I had all the info I needed, but I could not remember the name of the electronic service I used. What’s worse, I used the wrong email address (I typed “yahoo” instead of “gmail”) so I couldn’t check my email to see where I saved my return at. Since I used a school computer, I could not check the “history” tab and all the online tax sites had similar sounding names. I was pissed off that I had to start all over again, but now I know I should stick with one online tax program from now on!
For several years lived in a state that produced the likes of Dan Quayle. Completed state tax forms and saw a refund of less than $3. Decided not to file. Mid-September receive a bill for $750, estimated amount due for state taxes. College student at the time and don’t think my AGI was much more than $750 for the year. Ignored letter. Escalated to threats of garnishing wages. Didn’t have a job so would have been tough to garnish wages. Hell, even at that time I don’t think I had enough money to garnish a salad. Finally filed the return to calm the masses and received the $2.83 check. After holding the check for 45 days I called sate office and claimed non-receipt of refund. They issued a tracer and eventually sent another check. 45 days after receipt claimed non-receipt again. Tracer and another check. Still have three checks from the great Hoosier state for $2.83. Want one??
Due to my father passing away in 2006, I was left with a small rental condo in Yuma, Arizona that I sold in 2007. Thus, for the first time, I decided to hire someone to assist me – I had previously been an avid user of TaxCut. I went through H&R Block’s service, and let’s just say I was underwhelmed. My representative misstyped in information, told me that certain items were not deductible, etc. I had to, on numerous occasions, do my own research into IRS publications, and direct him to the research. Sometimes he would just say that his software didn’t allow him to type in my figures, and I’d have to say “Please find a way to make it work, because it is clear this is allowable by the IRS.” Finally he gets it all straightened away, and then tells me that mine was the toughest return he had prepared all season. I almost wanted to tell him that it was all me filling it out, and I just used him for “free audit support” should the IRS come knocking 🙂
Okay, here’s my story. First time filing myself, right? I was using handy dandy tax software that we had bought at the store. The first disc we got was actually a dud and wouldn’t load, so I spent over an hour with the support hotline for the company trying to get it to work to no avail. Annoyance number one.
So we took it back to the store we had bought it at. Annoyance number two.
Next, I began entering the information and answering the interview questions, only to find out that I needed to download the “upgrade” of the BRAND NEW SOFTWARE that I had just bought off the store shelf. The catch? We were on dial up internet. Annoyance number 3!
3 HOURS LATER, when he download was finally complete, I entered all the information, and something was wrong. ANNOYANCE number 4!! I knew that return didn’t look right. So I called the software company again, who worked with me for about 20-30 minutes only to tell me that it was a tax issue and I would have to speak to the IRS. After 30 minutes with the IRS, they told me that it was a software issue, and I would have to call the software company.
AGHHH!!!
Finally, I decided to try a different company all together. I went on the IRS website, loaded a freefile software and finished my taxes in 20 minutes. Grrr!!
A CPA of my acquaintance was wrapping up his April 15, getting ready to head to the party, when the phone rang. A client was in tears. She had arranged to meet her estranged husband in a restaurant parking lot to get their final joint return signed. The husband beat her up, ripped up the return, and drove away. So my friend sat with the client, who naturally was a basket case by then, and the client’s sister, working up an extension based on a married-filing-separate filing, which they got to the post office around 10 pm.
Story 1:
I once worked in a small CPA firm in a small town in northern Missouri. We picked up a new individual client and we sent him an organizer to fill out. We got a call from the guy telling us how he was disabled and couldn’t see too well and could someone help him with this? So I volunteered and drove out to this guy’s house. The guy’s nurse meets me at the door and takes me to his “office”. His office happened to double as one of the bathrooms; he kept his paperwork in the cabinets where you would normally keep towels, toilet paper, etc. The client made his way in with his walker and the nurse brought a chair for him. There was no chair for me. I basically had to sit on this guy’s toilet for an hour or so while going through his paperwork. Then when it time to deliver the return, the guy had questions again, so I drove back out and sat on his throne for half an hour to explain everything.
The other folks at the firm gave me grief about this, knowing that I was only there on temporary basis and that somebody else would have to go out and do “throne duty” for this client next year.
Story 2:
I was working for a regional firm in Atlanta in the early 90s. We had a client who had sold his meatpacking plant to a corporate buyer for a big chunk of change, on the installment method. He basically built the business up from scratch, so there was a hefty gain on the sale (8 figures) and he had a 7-figure amount due to the IRS.
On April 15 he came in to sign the return decked out in western wear (his wife, as sort of a hobby, operated a western clothing store) and reeking of cheap cologne. He sat down, signed the return, and pulled out a normal wallet-sized checkbook to write a check for the balance due. He really struggled to fit all the digits in the little box on the right where it says “dollars” and his hand was visibly shaking as he wrote out the amount on the face of the check. In my mind, he was sweating too, but that could be an embellishment. (I remember this political cartoon from the 80s of Reagan trying to balance the federal checkbook and having to write numbers all the way across his desk and muttering, “Fudge!” – this was a similar tableau)
After he handed us the check, we ran big magnets over the MICR line, stapled it with about 20 staples through the MICR line, on the theory that it would take the check longer to clear this way (no idea whether that worked or not, but the bank the check was drawn on was rural and probably didn’t have the most up-to-date clearing system).
oh.my.god.TAXES.
My experience left me grumbling and groaning for months! I had just graduated college in May from an art school in New York (worked there). Went home to Massachusetts for three months (worked there, too), then moved to San Francisco in September (oh yeah, worked there as well).
This also happened to be my first time filing by myself so I decided to go to a Big Name Tax Place to get some help.
I sat there while this woman did my taxes on her computer and answered any questions I had. It seemed promising; I was going to get $206 back according to my Federal return. Hurrah! And positive numbers from Massachusetts ($19) and California ($34). “Oh hey, this isn’t so bad!” is what I’m thinking.
But New York.. oh, the work study on my campus ended up killing my joy. No one ever told me I would have to end up paying the taxes that they never took out of my paychecks. Didn’t they realize that a starving art school kid doesn’t suddenly stop being one 7 months after graduation??
I owed New York $369. Ouch. After all my moving-across-the-country expenses… ouch.
Okay, well.. if I think about it, with the money coming from the Feds and MA and CA, that’s really only $110 out of pocket. Not too bad.
Oh, but wait! Getting my Federal and confusing, earnings-from-three-different-states taxes done at Big Name Tax Place, $272.
So, I had to pay for everything upfront – New York taxes owed, plus the fee for having my taxes done. $751 out of pocket. I stood there at the front desk of that office hyperventilating and nearly in tears. Thank god I had a credit card, because using my debit card would have left me with a bare $8 in the account.
Absolutely terrible. The worst was getting home and having to ask my boyfriend if I could pay my part of the next months rent late.
Last year I was supposed to get money back from both state and federal. Not much, because I’m married without children. I e-filed and got direct deposit. I got my federal back pretty quickly, but it took forever to get my state. I never saw it deposited into my account. I called my bank and asked about it, and I called the state and asked about it. State said they deposited it on a certain day, the bank said they never rec’d it, so I kept checking. About a week later I called the bank again and she told me that it was deposited in my account on this day which would be right. But I could never find the record of it, and I couldn’t remember spending almost $500. Still a year later I don’t know what happened to that money.
I am a 70 year old widow, retired Federal employee now working full-time in another line of work, and never had any problems with my tax returns – until last year. My tax preparer filed my federal and state returns on time. However, for the first time I owed to both but did not have the funds to send the amounts owing. I told my tax preparer to indicate that I wanted to pay the amounts in installments. My NYS tax owing was small and I was able to pay it in one shot. My tax preparer told me I would receive a notice from the IRS. I assumed that the notice would arrive within a few weeks or a month. When I hadn’t heard from the IRS within a month I tried calling the 1-800 number I had been given but, as is typical with government numbers, I never got through to them. I then found out that the local IRS office had been closed and the nearest office is in Albany, NY, 200 miles away. I tried calling them to no avail. Finally I wrote to the IRS office where my taxes had been filed, explaining that I had requested to pay in installments and how much I could afford to pay each month, but had not as yet received a notice from them. I never heard from the IRS until approximately 5 months later (December 2008) at which time they sent me notice of amount owing plus penalty and interest. They did deduct the $600 stimulas amount from the amount I owed which lowered the it. By now I was a nervous wreck. But the nervousness turned to anger when I read on the notice that the penalty and interest is charged on the original amount owing and will keep accumulating each month based on the original amount. I find that unethical and do not understand how they can do that. Plus I had made a real effort to get started on making the payments but they took over 5 months to get the notice to me so I was charged with those extra months. I dread filing my 2008 return because in all probability I will owe again and have not yet been able to pay off the amount for 2007 because of the penalty and interest which keep adding up each month. I have tried unsuccessfully to borrow the money to pay it off. If I were dealing with a corporation I could probably legally fight it but with the IRS no one wins. Thanks for letting me vent.
We’ve moved a lot in 31 years of marriage (I got married when I was 18). Actually we’ve moved 26 times. The worst tax year was when we lived in three different states in one year. I always (love to) do our taxes. It’s like a big puzzle. But that year was a nightmare. We had to fill out three different partial-year residents state forms. I was unaware that individual states can count a partial year differently! So one state counted income by where it was earned (they only taxed what you earned in their state). But another state counted income based on the percentage of time in the state (so if you lived there 45% of the year, they “claimed” taxes on 45% of your total year income, even if you made significantly more money in another state and hardly any money in their state)! Juggling three state returns was crazy. What was most discouraging was the realization that we had paid taxes more than once on the same income because of the different ways the states calculated their “fair share.” While that wasn’t incentive enough for us to permanently put down roots, we try not to live in more than two states in one year, or try to move on 12/31 to avoid another multiple-state filing year!
Ok, so, here’s my story. There’s a possiblity that others have a story just as bad, but, I doubt it.
First, the basic facts: I’m a single female, 36, with two jobs, living in Southern California. I don’t have any dependants.
I took my collection of W2s into the place where I get my taxes done, excited because I knew that I was going to put my tax return for my moving expenses to England.
I have one from a former job, and of course, 2 others for my current jobs. The total combined income came to around $22,000. I claimed “0” for two of the jobs, and “1” for the job i am paid the most, a restuarant. I have never had any idea what claiming 1 or 0 means to my life, but, I do now!
So, the woman gets to punching the stuff into her computer, and she says that because I recieved the $600 stimulus last year, I wouldn’t be getting anything at all. And, to make things worse, I have to pay the US government $59 and the State of California $62! She gave me a W4 form, saying that maybe I could give it to the employer where I claimed “1” and have them send me out a new W2.
And, on top of all of that, she was going to charge me about $200! I was near tears!
(I asked my supervisor at work tonight, about the W4 situation, and she said that it wouldn’t be possible for this year, it would only be effective for next year. )
The lady felt sorry for me, because I was stunned and about to cry, so, she let the session be a “free consultation session”, and gave me a bunch of flyers to put up at work, to advertise them, because they were having a special for teachers. And she gave me a coupon toward my session when I returned. So, I left the tax preparer’s place, feeling like I’d been kicked by 1,000 stallions , in the gut. With the prospect of not getting any money back from the government, and instead having to pay them. I’ve never paid taxes in my life! I’ve always gotten something back!
What should I do? Please help!
Thanks for letting me vent. Hopefully, even if I don’t win or anything, you are able to give me some concrete advice so that I can get out of this mess.
Filing your own taxes can be a headache, next year I am going to use the FREE software to manage my deductions : TurboTax ItsDeductible Online (http://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/itsdeductible/)
My tax horror story is probably going to turn out to be this year’s. Part way through the year, the LLC I am an owner of stopped paying me on payroll (with deductions) and started paying me with straight-up checks. I made quarterly payments some of the quarters but forgot others. Plus, the company earned a profit so I’m going to have to pay my share on that. And finally, for some confusing reason, all the deducted taxes that I *thought* I paid when I *was* on payroll were refunded to me in one lump sum. To make matters worse, I never paid quarterly Philadelphia wage taxes. I was hoping to save money and prepare my taxe return myself this year. But I have a feeling I’ll end up paying a professional.
Here is my horror story last year last day to file in order to receive stimulus check. I get a cell phone call two hours before midnight , just as i am about to have a ” barley pop” and call it night. frantic voice can you file our taxes? We have them ready. Me being nice guy drive to pick up the have them ready. Well have them ready is everything for their personal return ,plus business return in a series of envelopes and loose paper. I knew i should have had that “barley poop” before i took the call, got the personal return e-filed with 30seconds to spare. Next day they tell me oh we wouldn’t have gotten the stimulus check anyway…IRS is taking it for back taxes!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was 1985 and I filed my taxes normally. I had spent some quality time with Dad at the horse track the previous year and “our”/ “his” winnings were signed for by me and my ssn. Not thinking anything about it, I never disclosed the money. A lovely letter came to my dorm certified and told me I was being audited. Dad and I spent about 3 years rectifying a very ugly situation. I got my first positive return for .10 in 1989 and I decided to frame the check as a trophy. Still have it today
Great comments. You should share them here http://tattletax.com/submit-a-story/