*Ahem* (*Swallow*) Taxes

FIASCO! (the taxes AND the fact that my blog will not format with paragraphs and spacing for all the dramatic effect I like to throw in (*smiles sarcastically* but is still serious))




Last year. In February. I filed my taxes. I was determined to NOT pay a taxman. So I used a free site and Uncle Kelly. We sat there and went through my W2's and my 1099. We plugged in the information. He called his taxman. And we did it. Turns out I had made so little that I didn't need to file State.. only Federal taxes. I opted to not use my credit card and pay the taxes in Feb thinking I would keep the $330 dollars in my account until April. So April came and I printed off the receipt of my tax documets. The part that says 'mail this in with your payment.' I took it to the Post Office and mailed it in. Right on time. (Actually a couple days early.. or maybe one.) I was now waiting to receive my stimulus check for $300 which means -technically- I only paid $30 dollars in taxes.




I waited through April, May, June - nothing. July, August.. September? -nothing. October -nothing. Now I don't remember exact dates but I know it was late October that I started calling the IRS. I had some kind of back post or Facebook status that said the IRS was playing Christmas music and it was EARLY. I had faithfully been checking "What's the Status of My Stimulus Payment?" and getting nowhere. The representative I finally spoke too after being re-routed and having to call -count it- THREE different numbers was a very kind lady (NOTTT! She was a very verrrry mean lady!) She made me recall a lot of information .. She told me my filing was never received. I told her it had been a ton of months and I had mailed in a check and if they hadn't received my filing, why hadn't my check been returned?' She said 'It's not our job to figure that out. If someone mails us a check, we are gonna cash it. We're not gonna figure out what it goes to, that is up to the PERSON to figure out.' I was mad, I told her I would have to call back some other time because my lunch break was over. Instead what I did was print off the copies of my tax documents and a copy of the check I mailed the IRS and resubmit it all. In November I called back. The same thing happened plus more. They didn't have anything on file. She THEN told me that my name was not Erin Augustson it was Erin Hann. (I had changed my name in January 2007 back to Erin Augustson. ) I was thinking.. 'What is going ON here?' So I emailed (except I'm told I didn't (and maybe I really didn't. Maybe some error happened whether on my part, Uncle Kelly's part or the H&R site did something when I decided not to process payment at that time.)




So I started checking the H&R Block website. -Down for routine maintenance. GRRR.




So I called the faithful Taxman my parents and grandparents have used for YEARS. He said, "Start with H&R Block. Figure out from them what went wrong. If it's a mess I'll help you. It won't be without a headache, but we can take care of it."




By this time it was November. Every Wednesday night I go to 'Date Night at Grandma and Grandpa's." I'll have to post about this sometime. I was sitting at the dinner table. And I got to thinkin'. I haven't gotten anything from the DMV for registration renewal... So I casually mentioned it while we ate. And then in my head I said "I haven't received a stinking thing and I am 99% sure my tags expire in Nov." That was it I had to go check. So I ran down the stairs and jogged over to my car. Sure enough. EXPIRED! -AYYYE WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY LIFE?- I turned to jog back inside and back up to the dinner table. I made it about 3 steps, my shoe slipped off my foot and I tripped.. and then.. I fell down. It wasn't a pretty fall. I fell ALL THE WAY DOWN. Flat like a pancake. Not to my hands and knees. Straight down. Belly to the ground. I popped back up. Man my hands stung. My hip. I went back inside. Grandma put bandaids on my hands.




Now, my tags were expired, my taxes weren't filed, my name was Erin Hann, and I had no stimulus check.




I got to work the next day and asked if I could take a day off to try and deal with it all. I was given it. Went to Social Security, they verified my name was Erin Augustson (like my driver's license proved) and had been since January 2007. I went to the DMV, ready to pay the late fees for the registration that was NEVER mailed to me. And they waived them. Things were going good. Went to H&R Block, and the office was closed with a sign in the window saying to go to their Soledad location. So I went there. CLOSED! Upset! Called!! The guy told me my taxes were never submitted.



Erin, "Why?"



H&R Man, "I don't know, but you didn't submit them through the site."



Erin, "But you can see my info?"



H&R Man, "Yes."



Erin, "Well can you just submit the information you have there?"



H&R Man, "No, because it didn't keep it on file because you used the free easy file and it deleted all the information when we started readying our site for 2008 taxes."



Erin, "So what am I supposed to do?"



H&R Man, "Your best bet is to print the documents and mail them in."




So what I did was reprint all the documents AGAIN and this time I sent them certified mail. Mhm. So now I KNOW that IRS received my tax documents. A week later there was an envelope in the mail for me from the IRS. My dad was like "Hey Erin. Maybe you got lucky.." I thought, "Absolutely NOOOO WAY. It was way too fast for any sort of notification of any sort." I opened it up. And they had mailed me a check to ERIN HANN for $330.73. They mailed my payment back, to the wrong person, with interest.




ALLLL that to say.. tonight I have a tax appointment. Please pray for me. (I have received 3 of my 4 W2's. Weyerhaeuser's has still not arrived.) It's not looking good.