ooh how to shorten this saga....
Lesson 1 - NEVER EVER EVER take money out of your retirement account. And if you have to, pay CLOSE CLOSE attention to what you're doing.
I took money in 2005 from what I THOUGHT was a penalty-free portion of an account I have..and I didn't properly document it on my tax return.
Lesson 2 - Uncle Sam and the IRS miss NOTHING. In April of this year, I got a letter saying, 'hey! You owe us money! And LOTS of it!!! There's the money you owe us, then a penalty for not payin, and interest since 2005'.....I do my returns myself but quickly realized I'm in over my head. So I went to an "Accountant" to handle this. I brought him every piece of paper related to the account, my taxes that year and any statements he requested.
Lesson 3 - If you feel like someone is avoiding you, most likely, THEY ARE.
It took me some months to get the amended return back from the Accountant. He was busy. He was away. He was not answering the phone. He was everything but finishing my return. But finally, it was done. According to his amendment, I owed some thousands...YIKES. But I expected the news to be bad. I went home and cried. DAMN YOU UNCLE SAM! Then began to figure out how to get out of this. I paid the federal and state and assumed the matter done.
Lesson 4 - If you think something is over, chances are IT'S NOT.
Some weeks later, I get a letter from the IRS, basically saying 'thanks for your amendment and checks, but you still owe us more money cause your sh!t was figured WRONG'. So I call Mr. Accountant back to say that the amendment was incomplete according to the IRS. Can't reach him. Call, email, fax! Nothing. I called the IRS to see if maybe I could figure this out with them because as the days pass, more interest is accruing. And I was reminded why I hired an Accountant in the first place.
So after no luck contacting him, I called H&R Block, and paid them to redo the entire thing. When I met with the accountant there, she looked at all the paper and just said "WOW". But in a weeks' time, she was done. And to my surprise, and GLEE, I had already OVERPAID....by ALOT....now I wasn't sure if I was more upset that the first accountant stiffed me, or now to find out I had overpaid. *sigh* Still no sign of the original Accountant mind you.
Lesson 5 - If someone cheats you, don't take the law into your own hands, take them to People's Court!
So after the joy of my return being accepted by the IRS, I went back to being upset that this guy did my return wrong, and now won't even take my call. Like he thought the IRS wouldn't notice??? AND not for nothing, he's West Indian. All that talk of support your own...frequent black businesses - that BULL....So, I've filed a small claims case to get the money I paid him back. Because in my opinion, he never completed the job.
So today, I got a letter from People's Court inviting me to have my case on the show. *This is how they get their cases by the way. The pull small claims cases placed in the city....they really ARE real people!* Now, the advantage is that if you win, the court pays you and you don't have to wait to collect. The disadvantage - picture me on tv....HUMPH....anyways, no People's Court for me I don't think.....to be continued though....
