Today I found a letter in the mail which looked like an official federal correspondence. I was not expecting anything like that so I opened it immediately. It was a check for over $25,826. It was from a previous year, at least three years back. Hmmmmmm.

Now I have had many such checks come in in four figures but nothing ever that large! Woooo Hooooo! Then I began to think...hmmmm maybe not such a perfect thing...better talk to my accountant.

Unfortunately about that time, before I had a chance to spend any of it, I woke up.

Anybody ever get an unexpected check from the IRS?

I did get one for about 1200 one year for what I did not understand but decided to not worry about it and deposited it and moved ahead. About a year later it came up again and an IRS representative noticed they had sent it to me incorrectly and began to berate me about it. I don't believe much if anything came of it.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Nothing unexpected however I did find a gap in my previous year's returns worth a few hundred bucks. I'll take it as a nice win!


Sent from an abacus

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

If you were a good Dem, the thought of spending it should never have crossed your mind. You should have ammediately mailed it back, with a letter stating that you know the Government needs it more than you do. Thats what I would have done if were a good DEM, Double EEK.

How can you make this political?

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

It was very easy.

Sounds like it could be used as some seed money to leverage more debt?

It sounds like your CPA/accountant either scr#wed up big time in the numbers, or, the numbers you provided were way, way off.

The IRS sent me a few thousand dollars about five years ago. I had forgotten how many thousands I had sent them in staying ahead of any anticipated taxes coming due. My mistake. It was not theirs in the first place.

When my brokerage firm started sending me money a couple years ago, it took some digging to learn that they retroactively had charged me commissions that they should not have on their clients that have million+ dollar accounts.

A one-track mind.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

sloride, made a very valid point......

I guess you did not notice it was a dream.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

You beat me to it, I wanted to say 'sounds like ....you did not notice .... " I guess it pays to read an entire post before figuring out how to respond

Only surprises I get from the IRS involve negative numbers

Biggest one was an "oh by the way, you owe us $36,XXX from 5 years ago...."

That'll git yer blood pumping.

One phone call - yes, ONE phone call to the IRS later, and it was sorted. 2 weeks later got the letter confirming the phone call's "never mind - we see what we missed."

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1961 220b: first project car - sold.
2000 CLK 430: first modern Benz - sold.
2001 CLK 55: OMG the torque!!! - sold
1972 280SE 4.5: Baby Gustav
1991 300TE 4Matic: Gretel the Snow Bunny - sold
1978 300SD: Katz the Free Man - given away
1980 Redhead: Darling Wife

I can't recall hearing of anyone getting that kind of a mysterious refund. But when it comes to income taxes, the world is full of inept, incompetent or simply aging taxpayers. (Sad to see that. I have a few)
Large refunds are usually the result of a filed (original or amended) return. If you miss claiming a loss or deduction on a filed return, IRS won't usually fix it for you. The EIC may be a different might be a different story, I'm not sure. I suppose it's possible for you to forget to put withholding or estimated taxes paid on your return. Or miss claiming some backup withholding. Then they will usually send a letter with or before the check.

If a return is never filed and a taxpayer has that kind of withholding in the system, he'll never get it back without filing a return. Every year the IRS announces that there are billions of over paid taxes about to be lost by taxpayer's failing to file returns.

The best way to deal with unexpected things from the IRS is to call them as speak to them about it.

If the check is real they will have no trouble telling you it is. The folks there just work for a living. It is not their money.

Someone will go over your return, something they do twenty times a day, and if there is an explanation they will give it to you.

And if there is an error they will work out how to deal with it.

I know because a check like this came in my mailbox about twenty years ago. It was clear there was an error on their part because the amount of the check was about 50% of my then yearly income.

So I called them and the first thing they said was not to deposit the check because it would be a nightmare to process the check you would then write them. I just wrote up a letter, included the name or number of the person I talked to, asked them to look into it and forgot about it.

A year or two later I received a letter saying that the check was issued in error, blamed me for all the trouble, told me to watch out in the future and suggested that perhaps I should get a real Accountant to do my taxes. It was clear to them I was a first class idiot. Otherwise the matter would have never come up.

Give them a call. It only takes a few minutes.

Pizza for everybody, right?

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

Home delivered of course!

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now