IRS rant

I know it's worthless to complain, but:

We files our 2014 tax return in February, using "E-File".

In early March, we got a letter from the IRS telling us our "refund" would be cut roughly in half, from what their E-File system calculated. OK, so we don't get what we expected. Easy come, easy go. We did get the reduced refund, and promptly spent it on overdue bills stemming from my then-recent layoff.

In April, we got another letter from the IRS - they want $2800 for taxes owed on our 2013 return, due to our not listing a "debt reduction" negotiated settlement of a credit card. We never received the 1099 that companies are required to send to people who get settlements like this, but they evidently DID send the information to the IRS so they could determine that we owe more.

First off, when we contacted with the lawyer to negotiate credit cards down, we were not told that any settlement would be treated by the IRS as a lump-sun increase in our income that year.

Secondly, why did the IRS not notice the discrepancy in our 2013 return before refunding almost double what we "owe" to us for 2014? I thought they deducted unpaid taxes from refunds.

I'm beginning to understand why some people go nuts.

To top it off, we recently got notices of MORE "settlements" from that lawyer - he's earning his keep, anyway - that will undoubtedly almost double our income this year, so in 2016 we will have to go into more debt to pay taxes on money we never saw.

There's been much talk of the "Fair Tax" where you pay a set percentage of your base pay to the government. It still will require the IRS to monitor people's personal lives lest they have an undocumented job, and will still require all those databases of American's financial dealings.

How about we abolish the IRS and all income taxes by Constitutional amendment. Make all government live off 5% or 10% of all retail sales exclusive of food, and shrink as needed to stay within budget. Let the various states donate 5% or 10% of their tax income to the federal government. The feds should never be bigger than 1/10 of 1% of the economy, defense included. This will provide a long-needed positive feedback mechanism for the government to actually help grow the economy rather than impede it.

Of course, this will mean a wholesale deconstruction of the federal government, and the layoffs of millions of useless drones, who will all go on unemployment until it runs out. Since all "entitlements" would also end, these drones would have to learn useful trades or starve.

Beautiful image. I won't hold my breath.

Tax time

Did our taxes today. Only took three hours, including the "e-file". Getting a good refund, at least that's what the filled-out forms tell me. I'll believe it when the checks clear.

Aside from the Wisconsin e-file form not being readable in the browser, but just fine downloaded and opened in Adobe, and the fact that the Wisconsin W-2 form not allowing punctuation and cents where the federal form did, I think I only damned the fed and state IRS to eternal hell with extra brimstone fifty or so times.

Fury

That's my present mood. I just got finished filing my federal and state income taxes via the internet.

The IRS shunts you to a "private company" that collects your data and fills out PDF forms which then can be submitted back to the IRS. The IRS then tells you if the transmitted data was acceptable, and if there's an error, gives a fairly understandable explanation - whereupon, you must go back to that "private company" and fix the problem - and try again.

Four tries later, I have gotten an acceptance form the IRS. This by no means says I am out of the woods - just that the math all lined up.

The PDFs the "private company" provide are pretty good, but there are several places where data that should be automatically linked is not, and there's not a good explanation of exactly WHAT data needs to be transferred from one form to the other. There's no error checking to ensure all the IRS required entries are filled in. But - whaddaya want for free?

I wonder how much the IRS paid that "private company" to provide that "free" service? They offer their own "free" service - IF you meet their requirements for income, etc.

OK. Feds taken care of, and I expect a refund. On to Wisconsin.

The WI E-file site tries to open a PDF that calls in to the WI Department of Revenue. It requires you to have on hand an electronic copy of the IRS forms you just filled in - you DID download a copy, right?

Fill in the form - attach the IRS stuff - after spending a few frantic minutes looking for the PDF "attach" paper clip. Submit the mess to the WI DOR.

Find out you made a mistake on the fed form - fix that, resend - and try to update the WI stuff.

There's no way to do that. File once, and you are locked out.

I'm dusting off that time machine I started when I was eight - who wants to travel with me back to 1913 and shoot the progressives who pushed 16th amendment? Be warned - we will likely cease to exist upon finishing our quest. But think of how much suffering and waste would be saved in the next century!