baymule
Garden Master
It always amazes me how some people that are otherwise honest brag about cheating on their taxes. They only have to be caught one time and it is game over. Just not worth it to me. When we closed our business in Dec 2011, I faithfully did my taxes, filed all employment forms and thought I was done.....WRONG! I got those distinctive orange-gold envelopes in the mail ON MY BIRTHDAY! I knew it wasn't going to be good and sure enough, it wasn't. 
The IRS refunded me ALL the employee withholding and FICA taxes I had sent in for the last 6 months we were in business--close to $23,000! 
I called, and was told that I went out of business in June. Uh...nope. Well just send them back, the voice on the other end of the phone said brightly. 
I thought about it and the more I thought, the madder I got. 
TWENTY THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!! IT WAS NOT MY MONEY!! And I was just to send them back? For them to get lost, and the IRS come howling down my neck for the money that I faithfully paid in and filed the 941 forms for, for them to want their money AGAIN? 
No, I don't think so. I was so disgusted that I tossed the checks on my dresser for a year. No way I was going to cash them--that would be STOOPID. I really didn't know how to go about giving the IRS their money back in such a way that I knew it would all be cleared up. Finally I contacted a Houston Tx newsman named Marvin Zindler. He loved rubbing the IRS's nose in their own mistake and put me on the news holding the checks. He hooked me up with the IRS in Houston at the Smith Building downtown. I went in with all the documentation proving the money was NOT mine, double copies of everything. I had the man I dealt with make copies of the checks, sign, date and acknowledge that he had received the checks. I gifted him with a set of documents, all the monthly forms I sent in and we shook hands on the deal. He even told me that the department that got the money and the department that got the documents did not talk to each other and to be prepared for a nasty letter if the documents were filed and the receipt of the money had not been filed. He gave me his personal phone number if that happened, but I never heard any more about it. Gheesh. What a lousy birthday present that was. 
The IRS refunded me ALL the employee withholding and FICA taxes I had sent in for the last 6 months we were in business--close to $23,000! I called, and was told that I went out of business in June. Uh...nope. Well just send them back, the voice on the other end of the phone said brightly. I thought about it and the more I thought, the madder I got. TWENTY THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS!! IT WAS NOT MY MONEY!! And I was just to send them back? For them to get lost, and the IRS come howling down my neck for the money that I faithfully paid in and filed the 941 forms for, for them to want their money AGAIN? No, I don't think so. I was so disgusted that I tossed the checks on my dresser for a year. No way I was going to cash them--that would be STOOPID. I really didn't know how to go about giving the IRS their money back in such a way that I knew it would all be cleared up. Finally I contacted a Houston Tx newsman named Marvin Zindler. He loved rubbing the IRS's nose in their own mistake and put me on the news holding the checks. He hooked me up with the IRS in Houston at the Smith Building downtown. I went in with all the documentation proving the money was NOT mine, double copies of everything. I had the man I dealt with make copies of the checks, sign, date and acknowledge that he had received the checks. I gifted him with a set of documents, all the monthly forms I sent in and we shook hands on the deal. He even told me that the department that got the money and the department that got the documents did not talk to each other and to be prepared for a nasty letter if the documents were filed and the receipt of the money had not been filed. He gave me his personal phone number if that happened, but I never heard any more about it. Gheesh. What a lousy birthday present that was. 
