Zero dollars, zero cents

[Pat-inCO]

For those of you that remember, the IRS has been after me for WAY over a year.
They say/said that I owed them Two Hundred Eighty Thousand dollars for my 2018
taxes. That is when I sold my CO property and bought a place in AZ.

For those of you that have not used yours, you have a $250K Capital Gains
exemption (ONE time only) on the increase in value of your house. Since I sold my
house in CO for right at five times what I paid for it, I decided to use mine as I moved
to AZ. I did do one thing correctly. I had a tax accountant do my taxes for that year.
GOOD THING! When I got the letter saying I owed the IRS, I sent a copy to the tax
accountant. He replied that he had filed a reply to their claim, and we have been
waiting for, like I said, way over a year. During that time I received a nasty gram
from the IRS, telling me to "pay up" or I would be charged interest on the money,
about every three to four months. I ignored them.

What, to my wondrous eyes did appear today? A letter from the IRS telling me
that I owed them ZERO dollars and ZERO cents. Their claim has been resolved,
and I owe them nothing.

The one, almost funny thing is that for me to have owed them that much, I would
have had to pay taxes on the exemption of about 114%! Sounds like the old joke
about the dem'z income tax form . . .
How much did you make, send it in, only worse.

 

[blume357]

Whew... nothing like getting the zero owed letter....

My life with the IRS has always been quite funny.... the one that got me was for years I never paid the quarterly estimated taxes like they say you should.. then when April 15th came around I filled out the form and declared what I figured I owed but only sent them 10-20% of that... with a letter saying I wanted to make arrangements to pay off the rest in the next year.... 3-4 months later I start making the payments and always paid off before the next April 15th. One year I decided to actually figure out how much it cost me in penalties and interest to not pay the estimated quarterly taxes.... I still have that amount posted on my 'wall of fame': $23.69.

 

[Johnnu2]

THAT IS WHAT I CALL A "COLLECTIBLE"........AN EXTREMELY RARE ITEM.....

J.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

I expected to hear that you had to pay thousands of dollars to lawyers to settle up. :roll:

 

[Fox Mike]

The IRS many times doesn't let the right hand know what the left is doing. Years ago I managed an office and paid all our taxes through an accountant. We received a letter saying that we owed ??? amount of money. I checked with our treasurer and found that we had infact payed the required tax. I phoned them and explained that it had been paid and that we had the cancelled check that they had cashed. I was told: "We will look into it.". Two weeks later another letter arrived stating that if not paid by a specific date that interest would accrue. This time I mailed a copy of the cancelled check, the agent's name I had previously spoken with and the date of the conversation. Some time later a letter arrived thanking us for the payment and stating that the issue was now resolved. At no time did anyone, either verbally or via letter, state that THEY had made a mistake.

 

[Rick Courtright]

The IRS many times doesn't let the right hand know what the left is doing. /quote]

Hi,

And 2020-2021 epitomize this kind of problem. Regular IRS business, stimulus checks, Congress playing kickball with the tax code, child tax credits nobody seems to understand, shortage of employees, etc. are just the tip of the iceberg right now!

Glad Pat got his 0-0 letter! In only a year or so, too!

BTW, Pat, check with your tax guy about how this exemption works (at least for now). If you meet certain tests, you can use it more than once, at least the way the law's written right now. There's talk in Washington about changes.

Rick C

 

[Fox Mike]

My little episode occurred about 15 years ago. No excuse except poor management.

 

[Pat-inCO]

At no time did anyone, either verbally or via letter, state that THEY had made a mistake.

My complaint exactly.

Sad that the people making that level of "mistake" still have a job. :roll:

 

[toysoldier]

I never made the kind of money that brings the IRS sniffing around.

 

[Mobuck]

"I never made the kind of money that brings the IRS sniffing around."
Nor did I but there was about 5 years of close to $100K income w/o paying taxes or having payroll tax deductions. Then the year before I retired, I messed up and didn't spend enough. It's all in how you spend the $$.

 

[mishtub]

A classic from Ray Stevens about an IRS audit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aV8L9kX4xg

 

[Pat-inCO]

Look down a bit further . . . . and you find
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3VLqLLWxbQ

8)