2013 IRS debacle

 Internal Revenue Service

Kansas City, MO 64999-0010

 

7 August 2014

Regarding: SSN xxxxxxxxxxx       

Tax year 2013

Form 1040

 

We filed our taxes electronically on 3 March 2014 and requested a payment schedule for the balance due of $2097.00, including the "failure to pay proper estimated tax."

We have never owed that much in taxes previously; we were confused about what to do next.  We provided a bank debit card number during the application process. The online application said that we would receive an installment agreement plan. Two figures ($360 and $522) were listed as installment amounts. I was unsure which amount would be automatically deducted, so I set aside $1000 in case both amounts were deducted at once.

We waited and waited.

No installment agreement plan arrived in the mail.

No payments were deducted.

On 10 June, I received a letter stating that since we had failed to make payments, the balance was due in 10 days. I called immediately that day and told the woman on the phone (employee/operator number 1306672) that we had the money set aside and I could make a payment right then and there – I was prepared to make two, but I didn’t know why our payments were never deducted. She said that we never paid the “initial draft account fee of $52.”

Nothing had been mailed to us requesting that amount.

Nothing had been mailed to us at all.

I set up the initial draft account fee that day, drafted through our checking account with confirmation number 2x24-xxxx-47x5-xxxx. We then discussed the confusion on the payment amounts. She didn’t understand why two amounts were given to us and could not confirm the amount that would be deducted. I told her I preferred to take care of it more quickly and pay the higher amount of $522. She said that we would receive the installment agreement plan in the mail confirming the amount before deduction. I asked if I could preemptively make a payment by the due date of 20 June as a show of good faith. She said that was fine. I scheduled a payment, transferred on 20 June in the amount of $522.

On 25 June, I noticed that an additional payment of $360 was deducted from my debit card. (Please note that we still did not have an installment agreement plan.)  I immediately called and spoke to Ms. Taylor (operator/employee number 1307498) asking why two amounts were deducted. I explained the situation and after digging, she discovered that $360 was the installment plan amount and $522 was the projected pre-pay plan for tax year 2014. She noted that the $522 payment was not credited to tax year 2013. She advised that I wait until after the payment posted for tax year 2014, call back and ask them to move the amount from one account to the other. She said my balance due would then be $360 for July, August, and September, with a final payment of $106 in October.

On 30 July, I received a statement somehow dated 4 August 2014. It was the much-awaited annual installment agreement. It noted that we had accrued extra interest and penalties of $29.09 for failure to pay. I reject your penalty on the grounds that you failed to send the installment agreement at any time between 3 March and 4 August and only sent it after three payments totaling $1242.00 had been received by the Internal Revenue Service. Clearly, you received our information the first time, since you used the same debit card number provided in March, not the checking account routing number provided in June. When I looked over the statement, I saw the initial $360 payment posted on 20 June, but nothing further.

I called once again. This time Ms. Tindell (employee/operator number 1571579) informed me that the first payment of $522 could NOT be transferred from the 2014 tax year to the 2013 tax year.

At all. 

Ever. 

She then suggested that I write a letter and referred me only to the “contact information on the form.” She also stated that since it was the end of the work day (3:00 pm EST in Jacksonville FL) she was unable to connect me to a supervisor. She promised to write a note and have someone call me on 1 August. I was unsurprised to find that the phone call did not come.

Today, I waited over an hour on hold to speak to Ms. Krukowski (employee/operator number 1865423), who saw the prior notes on the account, told me that $522 was posted to 2014, and then asked “are you or your husband self-employed?” With my answer of no, she simply transferred $522 from 2014 to 2013. She informed me that it may take 2-3 weeks for it to show up in the billing cycle, but that it would show as a posting date of 19 June.

Why was this so difficult?

Please be advised that the final payment in October should reflect the removal of the failure-to-pay interest and penalties as referenced in bold above.  That makes the final payment in October $76.63.

 

ber $76.63.