Acronyms are pretty cool.
Some pretty faithfully match the words they're comprised of:
SCUBA - Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
TLA - Three (or Two) Letter Acronym
Others a bit more of a stretch:
MDX - Multidimensional eXpressions
DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid
And a few don't come even close:
IRS - Blood Sucking Bastards
Me? I'm just a wee bit bitter that they 100% robbed me of $1068 this year - and that if I don't pay THEM (the robbers/thieves) then, ironically, I go to jail.
Early 2008 I filed, retroactively, as an S-Corp for 2007. Congress specifically instructed the IRS BSB to allow these late filings. And, happily, they accepted my election without issue.
Only, all during 2007 I was paying estimated personal taxes. To keep things simple, let's say that was $15k. Meaning, that at the end of 2007, the IRS had $15k of my $$ in their grubby little hands. By changing to an S-Corp, the way I pay taxes as a corporation radically changed - and instead of paying quarterly estimated taxes, I now need to pay monthly withholding taxes (i.e. the kind of tax you pay to an employee).
The problem, by retroactively becoming an S-Corp for 2007 the IRS was expecting (let's say) $15k in withholding taxes. I didn't have that. As far as they were concerned, I was Wesley Snipes.
So they fined me.
Yeah, I could get an expensive lawyer and fight this - but I'd lose way more than what I've already lost.
Yeah, they're a gigantic bureaucracy, and I'm not surprised that I got screwed this way.
But by the same token, they're immoral. No other business or organization would operate this way. (If you had a $15k tab with the hospital, and owed $15k ... I'm sure they could figure out how to make that just work.)
I asked that they review my records, and note that I always pay on time, and abate or remove the penalty. They sent me a trial-size package of Vaseline, and told me to pay up. Blood Sucking Bastards....
UPDATE: After contacting the IRS... it looks like they're still trying to decide whether I have to pay the fines or not. i.e. they haven't yet processed my letter asking them to remove the fines. (Hmm... maybe I should take this post down while they're considering... )
I've had a few of these sorts of issues with the IRS over the years and have found them to be pretty good about being realistic and nice. One time they thought I hadn't declared some income, wrote me, and said, "Here's what you owe us (plus penalties and interest)." I wrote back and said, "No, no, no, I claimed this over on this other schedule, see?" It took a while, but they wrote back and said, "Oh. Our bad."
As you noted, they are a huge bureaucracy, so things are going to take a while to get done. But, in my experiences, they seem like a pretty decent huge bureaucracy in that they aren't stifled by too much red tape and there is at least a modicum of competency over there. (I have to deal with some state-run health agencies... ahem, MediCAL...) and I swear that the average IQ there must be in the low 70s.)
One interesting note: I once got one of those letters from the IRS and, lo and behold, it was my mistake. So I paid what I owed plus the penalty and interest. Wouldn't you know it - a week later I get a similar letter from the State of California. They were just writing to say that they heard from the IRS that I had some taxes I didn't pay and, guess what, I owed the state of CA, too! Joy.
Posted by: Scott Mitchell | June 05, 2008 at 05:07 PM