NT / Come Monday

[RitaB]

Phone ringing when I walked in. I missed it. Aw, shoot.



Client burst in two minutes later: "My husband is taking out $2,000 401(k) (he's 75). They are saying that they are gonna take out 20% if I don't tell 'em different!"

Me: "You always get a big refund, just tell them not to withhold anything."

Client: "But, then I will have to call them, or fill something out. They want to take out 20%, shouldn't I just let them?

Me: "OK, that's what I meant to say."



And, two salesmen have called. Awesome Monday so far.

[Nashville]

Why Argue?

Me: "OK, that's what I meant to say."

You've gotta wonder why people like that even bother to call. They've got their mind made up anyhow.

[JohnH]

1) They want to hear you say what they want you to say.

2) If you just won't say what they want you to say,
they'll still remember hearing you say it anyhow.

3) They're bored and need someone to talk to. What's actually said doesn't matter.

[ChEAr$]

Client burst in two minutes later: "My husband is taking out $2,000 401(k) (he's 75). They are saying that they are gonna take out 20% if I don't tell 'em different!"

Me: "You always get a big refund, just tell them not to withhold anything."

Client: "But, then I will have to call them, or fill something out. They want to take out 20%, shouldn't I just let them?

Me: "OK, that's what I meant to say."

After the third line above, I would have stopped and calmly informed her that she cannot call them and take care of the matter; that it is her husband's responsibility. IOW it's his call as to withholding or not.

[taxmom34]

if husband is 75 years old , he should have been taking out RMD for a few years now, why is she questioning the 20% withholding?

[JohnH]

I'm waiting for Rita to respond with:

"Oh, this client makes this call to me every year when she gets the letter. Each year I tell her the same thing, and each year she then decides to do nothing about it."

[JG EA]

My Monday was another CP notice. This time the IRA put K-1 income on my client's return instead of the relative to whom it belonged! Same last names but the SS#'s were different.(You think?) I checked and the K-1 SS# was clearly the relative's - not my client's. So, on the notice they put that the K-1 income belonged to my client in HIS SS# although the K-1 showed no such thing. It's crazy out there.

[RitaB]

Well

He is retiring (again) so he's taking the whole ball of wax. 2,000 Big Ones.

And, I think maybe John was right up there on his first post with Explanation of Visit #3.

She is going nuts having him around the house. I think she just came in yesterday to go somewhere. They have never consulted me about ANYTHING before now. On the way out she said, "OK, I am going somewhere else besides home. Haha." She was smiling on the outside...

[Burke]

My Monday was another CP notice. This time the IRA put K-1 income on my client's return instead of the relative to whom it belonged! Same last names but the SS#'s were different.(You think?) I checked and the K-1 SS# was clearly the relative's - not my client's. So, on the notice they put that the K-1 income belonged to my client in HIS SS# although the K-1 showed no such thing. It's crazy out there.

The IRS computers may disregard names, but SSN's? There has got to be something in their data that connects this to your client. Are you sure he doesn't have an IRA with this outfit too?

[JG EA]

No absolutely nothing. I checked the K-1. My client in not on the S-Corp in any way. But on their letter they had two items from that K-1 (interest and ordinary income) attributed to him and said it was in his SS#. It was not. I does seem impossible. I'll let you know how it resolves.

[FEDUKE404]

It could be worse

A long-term client has been a permanent resident of VA since 2005.

This client receives government retirement income from NC, client's permanent home for many years. All such income has been duly reported each year, since 2005, on the US/VA income tax returns. In 2005, the client filed as a part-year NC/VA resident.

Client recently received an audit notice from NC for tax year 2008 with an amount due of somewhere in the $20k range including tax, penalties, interest.

So what had NC done to reach that "amount due"? They had included ALL income shown on the federal tax return (including VA wages), investment income, and then applied the standard deduction to come up with the amount due. (The client had significant itemized deductions, but I guess NC just ignored that aspect.) One would assume the NCDOR got "the numbers" from the IRS???

The real kicker?: When I called the NCDOR "preparer" number, I quickly saw that I was getting nowhere as to why such a letter would have ever been generated (helpful hint: there was NO NC tax return ever filed in the first place for 2008!! - making it extremely difficult to produce a copy of said return...) in the first place, and after asking for supervisory assistance I was immediately disconnected.

FE

[JG EA]

So all these efforts to increase revenue for that state and the IRS new agents is making our job harder. I think they have a quota to fill and don't really pick the best returns with real questions to go after. I think they just generate letters as quickly as possible with no thought to accuracy or fairness.