Taxes

Wow. I really wasn't worried about this one. I figured that my current load was probably complicated and heavy enough to warrant a little grace period on further complications. I have to admit, it's very good I didn't get this letter yesterday. Yesterday would have been worse. We received a letter from the IRS today. It was not the check that I was anticipating. Far from it. I know I did the taxes correctly. I reported our income All our income, in All the right boxes. It took me a long time to figure out which boxes it should go in, and I was very proud of myself. I went through painstaking efforts to get the appropriate documents from the appropriate sources. I made sure all MY ducks were in a row - but one of the reporting companies, I guess, didn't.
Last year, one of D's 1099s was reported to him when it should have been reported to an S-corp that he was a part of through June. Oddly enough, D left the S-corp about the same time that the company sold off the section that D did freelance work for. For the rest of the year, he was paid as an individual by a different entity. I did a whole lot of message leaving and e-mailing to get the 1099 corrected. I'm finding that (is it possible) they didn't send the corrected 1099 to the IRS. So, even though the exact amount in question is reported through the S-corp, the IRS is looking for that amount paid directly to D. Even funnier, they are looking at the other amount, reported by a different company and assuming that we simply under-reported that income, and owe taxes. I was very relieved to find that this was the case. At least I am absolutely sure that we reported all of our income, and don't owe any more taxes. Now, I just have to help them connect the dots. Funny how these things go. When it rains, it pours - that's what they say. I have 30 days to make a formal protest in writing. Thankfully, I have good communication skills, a computer with a great word processing program, a wonderful printer that will spit out a lovely letter upon request, a copier that sits on my desk with which I can make copies of all pertinent documents, and a very good memory of all the trouble I went through last year to get it done right.

How crazy is that. The IRS is wrong, and it only took me 5 minutes to figure it out. It I HAVE to be audited, I'm glad it's because of someone else's mistake, rather than my own.