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Monday, August 01, 2011

yard, water heater, and the IRS

Good morning.
The week ended very busy. :-)
And the heat wave is back. 90 yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Sunday, I of course, cleaned the Salon, and spent the rest of the entire day working in the yard. This time of year, there's a lot of dead-heading to do. We also burned a pile of branches. Trying to keep up the looks of the yard for the up-coming wedding pics to be taken on the 13th.
For dinner we had tasty pork cutlets with a peach glaze, baked potato and grilled zucchini. Did you know, you can use almost any type of jam or preserve to baste meat with? Try it sometime, they're really good!
Anyway, this morning we've got someone coming out to assess our water heater situation. I'm thinking we'll have to bite the bullet and go with a power vent water heater. That well set us back nearly a grand. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.
In other news....
Friday when I got home, got the mail, I see a letter from the IRS. That's never a good thing unless it's a refund check. But this wasn't. It was a bill stating I owed $887.22 from last year. With all ready added penalties and interest, $992. 57. Okay, this couldn't be right. I got a refund this year! When Craig got home, I had him look it over. He got upset. It doesn't take much to set him off, and a letter from the IRS would easily do it. He dug up last years return and remembered we received a letter in April stating we miscalculated our self-employment tax. They corrected it, and would correct the amount of refund we'd receive. How much was the miscalculation? $887.22. That's right, now they say I owe it back! But Craig went back through the return, and he did miscalculate the tax, and we were due that extra money! So I said I'd call and get it all straightened out, He immediately went for a cocktail, knowing this wouldn't be that easy. I called the 800 number, went through the many menus until I found the one that would let me speak to a live person. The recording said I'd be waiting more than 15 minutes. I waited.................10..................15...................20........................25.........then a real live person picked up, and asked, "how may I help you today". I explained the April letter, and the one I'd just received. She said that didn't sound right to her either. She took down the specifics, name, SS number, address and such to make sure she knew to whom she was speaking, asked me to hold a couple of minutes while she went through my return. She came back on to say I didn't owe a thing. Someone must have reviewed my return and mistook that April notice as a tax, not a refund. Anyway, she corrected it, said I'd receive another letter stating so, as was there anything else she could do for me today. I thanked her for her time, said all was good, and hung up. I was amazed and shocked how easy and quickly it was resolved.
Sometimes things do work out the way they should. :-)

2 comments:

  1. I'm surprised, too; but very happy to hear that!
    Hope Craig is feeling better now, too. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't jinx yourself. Right after you hung up she quit. :-)

    ReplyDelete