V-Day

Yesterday was V-day and what better way to spend it than an afternoon at the IRS then off to our multi-cultural adoptive family support group. 

For those of you who missed my lovely post about The Tax Man, you can go a few weeks back and find it if you are dying to know the details.  The synopsis is that we received a nasty-gram via certified mail explaining that we were being fined almost $3,000 for fraudulently claiming the adoption tax credit.  Mind you the government actually owes us a total of $14,800, not the other way around.  We have given them our paperwork twice. 

Upon the advice of friends we decided to go directly to the IRS office and talk to a person face to face rather than start with the 1-800 number.  This was good advice, because as you will later see, the phone would have been a bad place to start.  To get the mysterious IRS office we need to travel 45 min to get there before 4pm before they close at 4:30.  I have to bolt from work at 3:00 and get someone to cover my afternoon duty, that means I need to cover for them next week.  We finally find the building which is cleverly tucked away sending the message that we don't really want people to come here. 

We then go in, get a number and have a seat.  After about 30 min our number comes up and we are directed to desk 6.  All four of us trek back there with enough paperwork to reconstitute into a giant redwood tree.  We start off handing him our nasty gram and he just rubs his head and laughs.  I am thrilled he thinks this is funny and that he did not instead open up the trap door that whisk us off to prison. 

He says, "Well the IRS messed up a bunch of peoples adoption tax credit and I have seen 10 people this week with this report."  He then goes through and explains that it was a mistake and we need to call number 1, then ask for ____________office.  If they can' transfer us, we will need to wait 48-72 hours for a call back.  If we don't answer when they call we have to repeat the process (you know because teachers can always answer their phone whenever they want.)  Then we have to tell them %%%%%% (he gave us a script that might as well be in a different language.)  Then they will fix the error, and in 6-8 weeks we can expect to received our return. 

Seriously???  I get threatened with jail or $3,000 for a imaginary mistake, but when you make a mistake it will be resolved in about two months.  All whining aside, I am glad it was their bad and not mine, but seriously!

So our Valentine's day was more like victory day for us.  Like all things in my world, I will be sceptical until I have deposited my chunk of change.