Effin IRS
I applied for rapid refund back in February. My intenion was to have it back in time for Paige's B-day, because po' Bala-I b-day celebrations are the celebrations of the cursed middle child. So anyhow Jim starts getting this mail, (in our box, BTW!) a bill apparently from H&R Block financiers. The IRS has not released our refund. So I call IRS to find out why they have not released our refund.
According to the IRS we didn't file a 2001 return. I'm SURE we did. I seem to recall that was the last year we could claim Linda as a dependent. So I go through all the files I can find, and I have returns that date back to '96 NONE of which are 2001. AAAAaaarrrggghhh!! I'm not without hope. There are a few places in which I can look for that info. I also seem to recall that it was also a tremendous pain in the ass for me because Jim cashed in on a bunch of stock that year, at a loss.
So I had the info at hand for when I placed the call. I asked what we needed to do to get everything set straight. She said "file for 2001." Well DUH! She volunteers to send me the info that they have for 2001 and once we've got that return filed, they will deduct any tax due from the refund before they release it. Mind you I've been very polite and patient up to this point, even in light of the fact that this won't get settled any earlier than eight weeks and H&R is going to bleed me dry for this shit.
So I said, "Well OK, we can get that taken care of. But we've generally received refunds in all previous years, I'm sure this return will be no different. Can I expect a return at that time?" "No ma'am, the statute of limitations have passed."
I started LAUGHING! I said "Of course! I guess that explains the exceptional timing on your (the IRS's) part. "I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't hear that." "I SAID 'that explains the exceptional timing for bringing this to my attention!'" "What do you mean by that ma'am?" "I mean why did 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 come to pass before the IRS caught this?!? Never mind, if you'll just send me the necessary information I'll keep looking for my copy of the documents we filed. Have a pleasant evening."
Effin IRS.