Today the IRS chose to empty one of my bank accounts. Any funds I put in that account go straight to Uncle Sam. I apologize to anyone whose checks bounce (Knox County Schools) because of this but I have no control over my government that is so desperate to fund an illegal war that it is willing to starve a 7 person household and threaten to put them on the streets. And all of this over not filing taxes for one year that I didn’t make any money and another year that I barely made enough money to sustain myself. [Update: This may have less to do with unfiled taxes and more to do with a (once small) lingering tax debt that haunts me from an old business.Nope. This totally has to do with an unfiled tax return. Irony: Had I filed, I would have been due a refund! Yes, the IRS sent me letters and yes I was taking action to avert this. It still hit me out of the blue.]
For the record, they overdrew my account by $102 dollars. Not only does your government have the legal authority to financially ruin you, make you homeless, and starve you to death, they can withdrawal more money than you have resulting a huge number of bank fees.
People, always file your taxes!
More to come after I buy a lottery ticket and a bottle of scotch. I mean, after I make some phone calls.
The irony in this type of situation is that I should be working my tail off right now to be able to pay the debt but instead of working I have to spend the entire day on the phone with the IRS negotiating with a manager to suspend collections for one year (of course, the house will have a lien on it during that year) by sending them a good awful amount of paperwork via fax which is billed monthly to the account that no longer has money in it to pay for the fax service (of course I could go to Kinko’s and use my bank card to…oh right, no money in the bank..no faxing from Kinko’s). When not talking to the IRS I have to be trying to get a lawyer to talk to me "um, retainer? well, see, the IRS took all my money.."
Update: A barrage of emails sent re IRS. Now we wait on those while sending some faxes on an unrelated issue that has to be played out like a chess game. I get a bonus move on that one then its up to them again.
Update: The tension in my wife’s voice is killing me.
Update: Newscoma has some commenters on the topic. And Michael Silence noted it.
Update 8/28/2008: What a great day!
I just wanted you to know that I’m horrified and angry that this has happened to you.
This is just awful.
for Christ’s sake.. I wondered what was going on. Having been round and round with the IRS I can understand your frustration. Even after finally paying them off, which took over 12 years, I still have liens on my credit report against properties where I rented. I hope the guy I rented from in Longmont, Co doesn’t have any problems with that. The apartment complex in Omaha can go screw themselves.
I’ll tell the whole story in detail as soon as I get my head above water.
In short, I worked for a corporation and got laid off. At that point in my life, I’d never made more than $47,000/year but had accumulated a significant 401k and done okay with some investments including the company stock options which I was able to cash in with the layoff for $38k. I had credit card debt from college but lots of room on the cards. So instead of clearing my debt and joining another corporation, I over extended my credit, cashing in my 401k and all investments, and started my own business which crashed hard within 3 years. I skipped mortgage payments to pay staff and in the end the business went under, my first marriage dissolved, and I had a little bit of a nervous breakdown..you know
…breakdowns come
And breakdowns go
So what are you going to do about it
That’s what I’d like to know …
I quit opening mail. Didn’t file taxes. It took about a year for me to pull myself together and by that time the fees, interest and penalties on everything was ridiculous. Of course I didn’t earn a reportable dime that year but the IRS kindly did my taxes for me and billed $11k. They did that for another year then pointed out that while I was skipping mortgage payments to pay the employees that I had failed to pay the employee taxes (so I really do owe them $8k where I screwed up the employee taxes. Of course $8k + penalties + interest gets absurd). The business I ran basically cost me everything and profited nothing. The IRS has me on the hook for more money than that business ever brought in.
And it gets worse. This year I paid the IRS $5300 and they turned around and billed me $8200 beyond the $5300.
The lesson that business taught me? 1) first hire a really good accountant, 2) second hire a really good attorney, 3) hire a really good sales person, 4) if there’s any money left, run the business.
The way I did it was 1) advertise 2) advertise 3) advertise 4) do everything else myself. Tough lesson.
The 401k was what killed me the first time as I used that to live off while looking for a job. The next year I worked as a freelance consultant but did know about filing quarterly taxes. 10k in ’94 and 12k in ’95. And I too learned that not opening mail doesn’t make problems go away. I wish I had good advice to give you but I didn’t do anything the right way. Good luck.
Sorry man. Good luck, don’t let whitey keep you down.
Keep going, you can make it. You are amazing. Keep your determination to transform this situation strong. Don’t be blown by the storm on the surface of life, as long as you keep going, the underlying deep currents of your life are changing and you will steer the ship and your crew of 7 through this storm.
When we are under the dark clouds of struggle, its hard to believe that above the clouds, the sun is still shining. Keep going.
Its not the success that measures a man, but his ability to handle real struggles, the very real kind of struggles that you have.
Sending you daimoku. Jason
put God first and you want have to worry about this deceiving world.I love you and i will be praying for you and your wonder family. read the book of revelation in the Bible. Everything that is going on now is in that book. you can email me anytime you would like to talk. jozelllovett@yahoo.com