...and the Lord taketh away

My elation over the previous piece of mail was short-lived. The next envelope was from those likeable people who gouge you on every paycheck and then ask for the remainder of what you have on April 15th.

I did open a letter from them three months ago. It said that I hadn’t reported some income on my 2010 return and they wanted an explanation or, preferably, a pile of cash. Checking their logic, I found them to be about 1% correct. There was a small item omitted. The rest they cited was a gross figure on security sales. You’re supposed to pay gains tax on the net, which was reported, not the gross. Since they write the rules and design the reporting forms, you might expect they’d know the difference.

I responded per their instructions, pointing out their error and acknowledging the small omission on my part. Since it was swallowed by my loss carryover and I didn’t owe any more, I asked what they wanted to do about it and said I’d appreciate a response before the 2011 return was due. I didn’t want to have to go back and do four revised returns (including state).

I didn’t hear anything until two weeks ago. That still gave me time to incorporate changes before filing a current return. Or, would’ve. It was simply an acknowledgement that they had received my response and would deliberate upon it. They would communicate their decision within 45 days. Wonderful. I would’ve thought three months would’ve been sufficient to noodle out a small detail.

Today’s mail brought the aforementioned good news (previous blog) and an envelope from my favorite government agency. Great! They were able to make a decision before the filing date.

That would’ve been too much to hope for. This was a notice that they never received a response from me to their communication (you mean, you acknowledged receiving it without doing so?). Therefore, they were enclosing a bill for $96,000. WTF?

Put it on my VISA card.