IRS Made a Mistake

FreeRepublic ^ | July 29, 2021 | ProtectOurFreedom

[ProtectOurFreedom]

We use Turbotax. Turns out my wife simply forgot to fill out the 8283 form. In the past, we have always filled out the 8283 and wrote “See attached sheets” which is our Excel list of deductions we prepare during the year. Somehow, in 2019, she sent in our Excel list but forgot to prepare the 8283. So it wasn’t Turbotax’s fault — it was operator error.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Call them. They have people that answer phones...”

Tried that multiple times, but we keep getting “We are very busy; call back tomorrow.” They might as well shut off the phone number!

At least the recording does not say “your call is important to us” or play insufferable, noisy “music.”

[plain talk]

So Turbotax did not recommend the standard deduction for you?

The whole thing is unusual given that the most tax reduction you can get from charitable contributions as I understand it is $300. So the most the IRS should be claiming you owe is something less than $300 unless the problem lies elsewhere or I am misunderstanding your situation. Cheers.

[BoringGuy]

You may want to contact the problems resolution office at the IRS. This is what they are about. From the we site:The new hotline for help — 877-777-4778 — will be available for taxpayers who haven’t been able to promptly resolve problems through normal IRS channels. Callers will reach trouble-shooters at the Taxpayer Advocate’s Problem Resolution Program.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Pay them and file an amended return by mail to get your money back.

[Egon]

Potentially a good idea under some circumstances (e.g., an issue involving a substantial amount of money or penalty). A letter from your representative can provide the motivation for the IRS to address your problem. But don’t expect the congressional staffer to know anything at all about taxes. They only know how to forward info to agencies and send out form letters to constituents.

Definitely true. If nothing else, though, it can be used as proof that you weren't just ignoring the issue...were the IRS to press the issue and start talking about penalties, fines, garnishes, etc.

[Starboard]

I suppose that if you wrote a letter to the IRS you could cc your congressman. That might motivate the IRS to be a little more responsive since they may realize it could generate a request from their congressional affairs office to address the issue. Just something to consider.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It has nothing to do with the standard deduction. We stopped using that when we bought our first house in the late 70s.

This has to do with a simple error by us (not including the Form 8283, but including the supplemental sheets listing the details of our donations). They asked us to send in the Form 8283 which we’ve done twice, but they keep asking for it. They ask for it, we send it to them immediately (mail with tracking number).

So after two requests from them to us, they sent us the typical nastygram “You have until August 5 to pay up or else.” Even though we’ve sent them what they want TWO TIMES. They are really fouled up.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks, BG. That “hotline” number was printed on the letter they sent us. That’s the same number we’ve called many times and the recording always says “Our agents are standing by to take your calls. Call now!”

No, just kidding. We’ve called many times and the recording says “Call back next business day.” Every single time.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“Pay them and file an amended return by mail”

That’s what we are doing. But it dawned on me this afternoon that we will have to submit TWO amended returns to clear it up. Here’s why.

We just wrote them a check for $1,000 which effectively means our charitable contributions were zero. Amended return #1 will remove / cancel our charitable contributions.

But we DID make those charitable contributions. So we have to file Amended return #2 to then add the charitable contributions back in.

This is going to be absolutely nuts and confuse the heck out of everybody. We need to talk to a person to clear it up, but you cannot get to a human being.

[plain talk]

“It has nothing to do with the standard deduction. We stopped using that when we bought our first house in the late 70s.”

Yeah I probably can’t relate to your situation. I haven’t had any debt for many years since I bought cars with cash and paid off the house 15 years ago or more. The standard deduction under Trump grew to over $25K for married couples which is more than enough for many people.

If you are convinced it is their error then hold fast and get a meeting with an IRS agent to work through it.

Good luck! Hope it works out OK.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks, PT. We made the original mistake by not submitting the 8283 form but we did include the supplemental pages. They asked for us to send them the 8283 which we promptly did. But they kept sending us letters to send it in. We sent it to them twice, but the letters kept coming. The last letter was “pay up or else by Aug 5.”

Now we have a mess to unwind. Ugh.