One mistake by some idiot with a keyboard is costing me 800 dollars

SUPRISE, you owe us 536.00 plus 250.00 for a tax mistake on your partners 2015 taxes...

Audit by the Wisconsin dept. of revenue.

Wonderful.

This has been ongoing for over a month now. I'm at my wits end dealing with computerized phone menus that lead nowhere, calls with actual humans that lead nowhere, and this morning the IRS actually hung up on me....

All because somebody put a 1 instead of a 3 in a box on a 1099-r form back in 2015...

My wife is totally and permanently disabled. She used to work full time for a major grocer corp. She has been on ssdi since.

We bought our home in 2015, to do so she cashed out her 401k for part of the downpayment.

When mass mutual (401k manager) wrote the 1099r for the IRS and treasury department, they screwed up by putting a 1 instead of 3 in the distribution code box.

That means early withdrawal taxes and all that jazz that should not of happened as she is exempt due to being totally and permanently disabled.

Now the fun part.

No-one will admit they #ed up.
No-one wants to help fix this # up.
They simply point at each other and say "there's nothing we can do, you have to talk to them".

Well I've talked to every party involved and guess what?

Zippo, nothing, nada...

Just eat the 800 dollar bill so we don't have to admit we #ed up is basically what I'm being told.

I'm so pissed off right now it's unbelievable.

First off, over 1500 dollars in federal taxes were taken out of the payout which should never have been taken out, due to this error.

Now they want me to turn around and pay another 800 to Wisconsin because the fed got paid when they shouldn't have.

Their reasoning is that since it wasn't reported as taxable income in 2015 taxes, that we need to pay up, plus penalties. I appealed it online, I spoke to the auditor who refuses at all cost to admit that it never was taxable income.

Round and round and round we go....

Grrr.

Speak with the company that dished out the 1099. If they won't send you a corrected 1099, you can use the information off of your 2015 1099 and create your own with the corrected exemption. Once you have that in hand, file amended federal and state returns; once done, any sort of issue will have to be resolved between the investment company and the local and federal tax agencies.

It will probably trigger an audit that will drag out for a few months, but the issue should resolve itself after that.

If there is one thing I've learned over the last few years, bank/investment businesses that are in charge of typing these tax forms are dumber than the ground they stand on.

And the Tax collecting agencies are staffed with middle school dropouts.

a reply to: dothedew

That's the general consensus ive come to.
However I don't think the fed is going to want to cough up the 1500 they got in error.
Which right now, I don't even care about.
It's the the state that has my blood boiling. Wisconsin has been on a roll with me since mid 2018. My tax return was 172 pages last year. Self employed logger, who did sub-contracting carpentery and didn't make crap for profit apparently is unbelievable to them. After dicking me around with my taxes, now it's my lady they seem to be after.
This crap feels like a personal vendetta.

I'm sure that's just my point of view, but , Jesus im tired of this crap.

Not to mention, it's been 3 really tough years financially, and were tapped out.

Thanks for the advice though, it's hard to know what to do when your in a mental tornado of paperwork and debt.

a reply to: Notoneofyou

I imagine millions of dollars are lost due to clerical errors every year. Back in the 90s I took my ex to the ER for a very bad infection from an injury to his arm. He was given IV antibiotics and a tetanus shot. I read all of the labels and questioned the doctor thoroughly to make certain. When we got the bill we were charged $5K for a Lupron Depot injection (used to treat prostate cancer in men and endometriosis, etc. in women) due to a coding error. I fought it for 2 years and they refused to correct it. I imagine such happens often.

a reply to: Notoneofyou

I do a lot of bankruptcy work, and spend a lot of time dealing with tax collectors who constantly try to get double paid on owed taxes.

Currently, we have someone charged with $2,000 in late fees over non-payment of a debt that wasn't even owed!

Basically, a bank listed a single withdraw from a CD as being withdrawn 4 times, IRS didn't check anything or didn't care, and has been withholding returns for several years to cover the non-existent tax debt related to the withdrawals. This person then filed amended returns to clear everything up showing that the IRS now owes HER for several years, but they refuse to release any of their (Technically illegally) obtained funds. On top of that, the person was late on paying the non-existent debt (prior to clearing everything up) and they are charging her late fees, interest and penalties.

They are literally charging her for failure to pay a debt that she never owed in the first place.

a reply to: GeauxHomeYoureDrunk
Wow! That's awful.
I'm sure you are absolutely correct with errors making a ton of cash without most people even contesting it.

I do wonder how many are actual errors though. From the little bit of digging I've been doing, it seems the state of Wisconsin has been on a roll eve since the President started turning the screws on social services like food assistance and welfare/housing type of things.
Seems to me the fast and loose playing of social services here has come under scrutiny, and now they need revenue to cover costs now that the cash cow is drying up.

Unfortunately, if I'm correct in my observations, they are going after the wrong people.
I am one those humans who actually runs a clean buisness. No unreported income, no shady #, even if it means we don't turn much profit.

However, I know a lot of businesses around here that are fast and loose, and crooked as hell. Massive amounts of money being spent when they claim to be broke.
And yet, none of them are having tax issues.

I dont get it, Or dont want to, i guess.

a reply to: dothedew

Good god man, that's terrible.

I cant even imagine how much fun its going to be to clear this up.

But for what it's worth, THANK YOU, from me and everyone else your helping deal with this type of nonsense.

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Get a hold of the local news and see if they are interested in doing a story on you and your wife.

If you were truly wronged, get your story out there into the public eye.
Considering the unfortunate situation your wife is in physically, and the fact that this was an error by a tax company/the state, there is more than enough to warrant a news story and investigation.

A small town journalist would love to help you get to the bottom of this situation, so long as they can document it.

originally posted by: Notoneofyou
SUPRISE, you owe us 536.00 plus 250.00 for a tax mistake on your partners 2015 taxes...

Audit by the Wisconsin dept. of revenue.

Wonderful.

This has been ongoing for over a month now. I'm at my wits end dealing with computerized phone menus that lead nowhere, calls with actual humans that lead nowhere, and this morning the IRS actually hung up on me....

All because somebody put a 1 instead of a 3 in a box on a 1099-r form back in 2015...

My wife is totally and permanently disabled. She used to work full time for a major grocer corp. She has been on ssdi since.

We bought our home in 2015, to do so she cashed out her 401k for part of the downpayment.

When mass mutual (401k manager) wrote the 1099r for the IRS and treasury department, they screwed up by putting a 1 instead of 3 in the distribution code box.

That means early withdrawal taxes and all that jazz that should not of happened as she is exempt due to being totally and permanently disabled.

Now the fun part.

No-one will admit they #ed up.
No-one wants to help fix this # up.
They simply point at each other and say "there's nothing we can do, you have to talk to them".

Well I've talked to every party involved and guess what?

Zippo, nothing, nada...

Just eat the 800 dollar bill so we don't have to admit we #ed up is basically what I'm being told.

I'm so pissed off right now it's unbelievable.

First off, over 1500 dollars in federal taxes were taken out of the payout which should never have been taken out, due to this error.

Now they want me to turn around and pay another 800 to Wisconsin because the fed got paid when they shouldn't have.

Their reasoning is that since it wasn't reported as taxable income in 2015 taxes, that we need to pay up, plus penalties. I appealed it online, I spoke to the auditor who refuses at all cost to admit that it never was taxable income.

Round and round and round we go....

Grrr.

The problem is 80% of the people who work at big companies and government simply DGAF. The punch their clock and go home. They have no incentive to care. It isn't their problem.

It is especially frustrating when it is so obviously incorrect and you can't find one person to give a damn and take five minutes to correct the problem.

With that said, the other issue is there is a lot of fraud, so often times when dealing with these bureaucracies, they take a guilty until proven innocent attitude. The best thing you can do is have all your paperwork in order.

I owned a condominium and the bank paid the entire building's tax bill out of my escrow account. Basically, I had bought a condo conversion and was the first condo in the building to close. The county tax roll still had the entire building as an apartment building, not condos. So when the tax bills came out, instead of it being divided among six condo units, they just billed me and my bank paid it. My tax bill should have been about $5k but instead they paid like $22,000 out of my escrow account.

It took about two months to get fixed. Neither tax assessor or the bank seemed to care. The only thing that helped is that I work in mortgage business and knew someone to escalate it to get resolved.

a reply to: o0oTOPCATo0o

It would be a great idea, but both of us hate attention, are are generally introverts. The idea of being on the news makes me sweat and panic.

which is funny because i can be alone in the deep woods and I'm fine, but people make me anxious as hell.

I'll still bring it up to her though.

Thanks

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Since you are dealing with state taxes, I would suggest you go to an actual state office location and talk to a human face.
I've done this many times for sales tax discrepancies.

It's a pain in the butt, but I get better results.

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Try this :

"Better get Baquero".

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Here in MI, one of the Detroit stations has a team of volunteers at a call center that will call businesses that have wronged people and threaten to expose them on the news, if they do not rectify. There's only a mention of the people they are fighting for and no actual stories are done about the people, only the business that wronged them.

Maybe there is something like that around you?
Call for Action Team

Your 2015 return (the one with the erroneous 1099R that should have been caught and corrected back in 2016) would have been filed no later than October 15, 2016, assuming you filled a timely extension.

You had the later of 3 years from 04/15/2016, or the extended filing date to file an amended return, form 1040, with a corrected 1099-R (the “corrected” box would have been checked on the new form).

The IRS would have notified you before that 3 year window had expired if there was a tax deficiency.

Since there is no way the IRS could have known that you, apparently, overpaid the tax due for 2015 (by having taxes unnecessarily withheld on a medical distribution of retirement funds), they could NOT have cautioned you to consider filing a timely 1040X for a refund.

The IRS can only work with the documents you provided with your return, if you provide an incorrect document, it’s up to you to correct that error.

State tax agencies tie their allowed amendment “windows” to the IRS, as far as I know (after 20+ years working for a state tax agency fielding issues like yours) most states allow up to 1 additional year beyond the IRS deadline, to file an amended state return.

Unfortunately, you are well past the deadline to file a 1040X and claim a refund for 2015.

And since the 1099R funds erroneously reported are integral to the amount that makes up your Federal AGI (Adjusted Gross Income), the amount that most state returns are based upon, you would probably be required to file a valid amended federal return before your state would accept an amended state return.

.

25 years ago I used to pay to get my taxes done, then I got scre*ed by CA state cause they made a mistake in my filing, and after the lady swore she would take care of the problem my checking account got garnished....
So I learned how to do my own taxes and problem solved...as a plus you learn the "tricks"....

a reply to: dothedew

Screw that... I say, take me to court! If you wont listen, maybe the judge will.

originally posted by: Edumakated

The problem is 80% of the people who work at big companies and government simply DGAF. The punch their clock and go home. They have no incentive to care. It isn't their problem. ...

And people don't think that AI has arrived...
Ok: it's not 'really AI'.
But employers run a hard tight ship, and the bigger the company gets: the colder, and les humane it gets, until we find ourselves working for soul-less entities.

Is that not like working for Uber today ?

We only have issues with 'fairness' when we are wronged, but don't seem to care for others, because we have all already been good and screwed-over enough times to have no more empathy, or sympathy, or whatever.

a reply to: Notoneofyou

Hi NOOY.
Have you tried getting help from some kind of ombudsman ?

Like these guys:
Office of the Taxpayer Advocate.

originally posted by: Nothin
a reply to: Notoneofyou

Hi NOOY.
Have you tried getting help from some kind of ombudsman ?

Like these guys:
Office of the Taxpayer Advocate.

The State won’t accept an amended return to change an item that is part of the federal AGI unless the IRS has accepted an amended return containing the changed item first.

If the OP failed to filed an amended federal return before the deadline for that year’s return, the OP is out of luck for both federal and state purposes...

The Taxpayer Advocate’s Office can’t help.

a reply to: dothedew

Did your client provide a Corrected 1099 (R or MISC, whichever was appropriate) WITH the amended return?

And, again, was the amended return filed timely?

The deadline to file a claim for refund is different on overpayments, such as penalties and interest collected in error.