Someone Else Claimed Their Baby On Their Tax Return!
Hello, my name is Darrin T. Mish. I'm a tax attorney with an
international tax practice based in Tampa, Florida.
Almost every day, on our website and on our blog, we get emails
from people relating their traumatic experiences with the IRS. I
thought I'd take this opportunity to go ahead and read one of those
here today. Then I'll let you know what my comments are about it.
It goes like this: Everyone has heard some type of horror story
regarding the Internal Revenue Service, yet I never realized how
traumatic IRS troubles can actually be, until it happened to our
family.
Here's our story: About five years ago, my husband and I filed a
normal tax return in March and claimed our two children, as we
always had since their birth. Luckily, we received a refund of
approximately $2, 500 about two weeks later.
The refund was deposited into our checking account. We used the
money to pay off two lingering credit cards, in our meager attempt
to stay out of debt. About three months after receiving our refund,
we received a note from the IRS, claiming we had claimed a child
who could be claimed on someone else's tax return.
Shocked at the mistake, we quickly placed a phone call to our local
IRS office to try to uncover the reason behind the letter. The
agent told us we were being audited because we had claimed our
child, and someone else had also claimed our child as well, using
the same Social Security number.
A hold was placed on our checking account, for the amount of the
refund, until the audit was completed. This caused our account to
be negative, and the funds were not available to pay for our checks
and other debits. Needless to say, the ordeal was embarrassing,
considering we had never bounced a check.
The audit took about two months to complete. In the end, we
received our refund again, after the IRS found the mistake. As it
turns out, the mistake was as simple as someone entering an
incorrect digit in a Social Security number. Before the audit was
finished, we had to open up another account at another banking
institution. The hold on our account left us owing numerous
charges, which the IRS initially refused to pay for.
Our experience with the Internal Revenue Service was traumatic, to
say the least. Since our ordeal, we never spend our refund for at
least four months after receiving it. The IRS is disorganized and
unapologetic when they make mistakes. I truly feel bad for those
who have a problem with this organization. Expect a bumpy ride.
That type of story is not all that uncommon in my experience,
especially when you are dealing with taxpayers who are eligible for
what is known as the Earned Income Tax Credit. In this situation,
what the couple experienced was most likely another tax preparer,
preparing someone else's return entirely, simply entered the wrong
Social Security number in on that taxpayer's return. I can
guarantee you that that taxpayer had a problem here, as well.
That goes to show you that you need to check your tax returns very
carefully before they're submitted. I would also suggest that going
to some of the seasonal tax preparation chains… You know the ones
that I'm talking about, the ones that advertise so much on TV. The
ones that talk about rapid refunds and e-filing. Those ones.
It's a little known fact that those people are primarily staffed
by, not volunteers–near-volunteers, actually. They're not paid all
that well–but people who have gone to a six-week, couple nights a
week, training course to learn how to use the software that is used
by that tax preparation chain. These are not particularly well
qualified people, and unfortunately, that's where most Americans
get their tax returns prepared.
I'm not really trying to knock those people at all. Everybody's got
to make a living and the fact that they can learn how to use the
software and they can make a little bit of money during tax season
is good for them. What I want to impress upon you is that you need
to check your tax returns very carefully before they get sent out,
whether they're e-filed or paper-filed.
You need to check your Social Security numbers. You need to check
that your income's all included. You need to check that they
haven't left any income off, that they haven't failed to include
some, or that there's too much income, that there's enough taxes
withheld, or whatnot. You need some basic education in how a tax
return is prepared, so that you know when it looks right or wrong.
The next thing that I wanted to comment about this is calling your
local office about a letter that you receive, or correspondence
that you receive from the IRS is a big mistake. Your local office,
called a "taxpayer assistance center, " which, I think, is kind of
an ironic name, considering they don't provide, really, any
taxpayer assistance anymore. But calling your taxpayer assistance
center in your local area isn't going to do you any good. If you
just feel compelled to call the IRS, which I typically suggest that
you do not, but if you need to call the IRS, just call the local,
or the toll-free number that's on the notice that you received.
The reason I suggest that you don't even call the IRS is, it's a
well documented fact that the IRS representatives on those toll-
free numbers are documented to give you the incorrect information
between 40 and 60 percent of the time. I like my odds in Vegas
better than that.
The long and the short of this story is, they claim their child as
they're entitled to do so, their tax return was correct. They got
audited. They bounced a bunch of checks. And none of this was their
fault.
The only thing that they could have done better… Actually, this
couple could not have done anything better. They did everything
that they needed to do, and they were still victims of the IRS
bureaucracy.
If you'd like to see more videos, or read more blog articles about
this type of situation, I invite you to visit our website, at
http://getirshelp.com. Or you can visit us at the IRS Problem Solver blog.
Thanks for coming.
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