So MAD at the IRS!!!
 

I got my taxes done on Feb. 14 - first time ever in my life that I walked in & had every piece of info for my tax lady & had them done, & signed them that day. Knew exactly how much I was getting back. Felt good about the amt - thought it would help fund some of my desire to go to the YT meetup in Alexandria, VA.

Tax lady says it should be in your checking account in 7-12 days. Nine days later my state return shows up - she told me it would come first & a couple more days then I should see the Federal. Well, I wait & wait. I'm checking everyday for the return.

In the meantime - on Thursday - I find $29 tickets each way to Florida during the time I'm on forced furlough for work. - So, after much debating with self I decide to buy them - taking the dogs adds another $200, and $30 for luggage & all the fees brings my total over $300 -- but I think hey, I'm getting my tax return & not having to use a bunch of vacation days. It will be ok. :rolleyes:

So, low & behold Friday my Federal tax money finally shows up in my checking acct. & it is short exactly $300!!!! :mad::mad::mad:

Yesterday, I was swamped with work & computer problems so couldn't call the tax gal. Just got off the phone with her -- she doesn't know what happened (she's off wk today - she's a friend of my parents so I called her at home) But she told me that the FEDERAL Gov't has so MANY problems this year - that returns are taking much longer especially if you have any education credits or if you live in a state that was a disaster area in 2008. Which I had both.

I never even qualified last summer for one of those $300 stimulous checks - because I make so little money. So, it's not that they counted for that. Now I have to wait until Monday for her to look at my return. But she said there have been many, many problems this year :thumbdown:thumbdown

I guess the federal gov't needed my $300 to help bail out AIG again, or maybe it was one of the auto dealers now with their hand out again. -- ugh

I'm kicking myself for spending the money to go to Florida - now this really effects my plans for the trip to the YT meetup :(

Here in California, the state is issuing iou's instead of the money they owe you. Can you imagine if you owed them money and sent an IOU? All hell would break loose upon you!

Yes, my tax gal told me that the day I got my taxes done - I thought thank God I don't live in California! That is incredibly sad.

What I want to know are they going to pay those taxpayers the same interest back - that they would charge if a Calif. taxpayer owed the state & didn't pay it on time??

I O U's are they crazy! A lot of people depend on their tax return checks just as OP. I bet they wont accept an IOU if a person owed the IRS money. I can not believe it.....

I agree about the banks.... always with their hands out and only to an extent with the automakers.

People do not realize that if these car companies go out of business there is a huge trickle down effect that could make the economy even worse. for example the steel mills, the people that make the seats, the people that make the carpet and a good many other industries will be left out in the cold! fending for themselves because the automakers are their main source or business, with out the car industry i am afraid more than half of my family that works for these particular companies will all suffer economic losses because of the car industry.

oh, I wasn't speaking out against the car companies - just that I want my money that is owed to me too! I don't appreciate being short changed.

I do though think the powers that be at the car companies, banks, insurance industry etc -- have lived in la-la-land for too long thinking they can spend big & fast. Sorry I didn't mean to take the thread in that direction.

This is really about how pourly things are ran with the IRS. I do not look forward to the battle ahead to get my $300 -- plus the one thing I forgot to say, is that when I got my taxes done, my tax gal thought I would possibly get $300 extra now - since I didn't qualify for the stimulous that went out in the summer. So there is no way they should have taken $300 away. Most likely the cause of this shortage is for education credits for the cost of my dd's schooling. Apparently, this is one of the big problems inside of the IRS

We do ours online(we have state farm car ins, so do them for free) with turbo tax and I love it. We used to use an Acct. but, he was charging us $300 and using the same thing we do to do our taxes.
It's getting bad when the IRS is holding money back, and worse yet, giving IOU's. That's just uncalled for. I was just telling my sister yesterday, the whole US needs to get together and say we're NOT giving anymore of our hard earned money out for bail outs. What are they going to do put us all in jail? I'm just getting sick of the whole dang mess the US is in.

Let me know if you don't get ahold of someone about the $300, a good friend of mine works for the IRS, (she's not crazy about people knowing she works for them, but, like she said, at least it's a job).

Oh, thank you! I will keep that in mind.

I'm so glad I saw this. We have a tax acct. do ours (his fee is not bad at all!) and when they are done with it, my husband goes to pick up the form that needs to be signed (because I work out of town and can't get by there during reg. hours) and brings it home. After we both sign it, he takes it back to them and they e-file. Well, this time he forgot to make a copy of it first. They always send a package of everything later so I wasn't too worried about it. Well, the amount that I had in my head - that I vaguely remembered our refund being - was NOT what just hit my bank. I think it's exactly $600 short. My hubby's going by the tax acct's office this morning to pick up those copies she was planning on mailing and try to find out why it was short. Sounds like something similar to your issue!

Did you get a $600 stimulus check in the summer? And if so did you/the tax guy answer the question yes on the form?

It is just a mess. Maybe the federal gov't thinks we are all stupid & won't notice when they shortchange us! :mad:

Okay, I don't know where my post just went so forgive me if it shows up twice....

Yes, we did get the stimulus check but I don't know what answer he checked until I see my copies. Hubby should be there soon.

I have to admit that I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to all the talk.... since we did get a check, are we supposed to be shortchanged on the refund???

This is crazy!

No that stimulus check had no effect on your taxes. That's why I like doing my taxes on my own computer, it walks you through every step, and it tells you everything, it said right on there that you don't pay taxes on it. It was just one of the questions on there it asked. We did our taxes a week ago from yesterday and our checks(both state and federal) were in our acct this morning.)

This is my first year e-filing. The refund actually comes that fast?
Will watch out for it.
Thanks,

Everything I've read when I google the issue says this same thing also but people are still getting shortchanged on their refunds. I will wait to see what my hubby finds out when he gets there.

I was really counting on that full refund (like I'm sure everyone is!) to pay some bills. At least I got paid what had to be paid but the remainder was to be for more bills (actually for remainders due on the kids' summer commitments). I hope we can get this fixed... and soon!

Carol yes. It showed originally 2 weeks, but, then after they accepted it(which IRS did that night and state did the next morning), I went in to their website, and it shows when it's going to be deposited. We did our taxes the evening of March 1st and it was automatically deposited lastnight. Are you having it mailed to you or autmoatic deposit? Think when it's mailed it actually takes one week longer, which is still really fast.
Go on to their website, answer the 3 questions(ss#, how much you were getting back and married, single, etc), it will give you the date to expect it

Ours came out exactly to the dollar what it said we were going to get. The nice thing about turbo tax when you do them yourself, is you can watch up on the top of the page, when you put in differenet things you can watch the refund change up and down, actually it's a lot of fun to do them and it took us an hour. I guess it did cost us $20 to file both, but, that's becuase we could't do the EZ form. But, still $20 to file fed and state is cheap

Yes, that's correct they can't tax it. But they do ask if you received the check & I guess because some people thought they would get taxed on it - people weren't being honest about receiving it :confused:

Do you live in a state that was a disaster area in 2008? I do - but wasn't personally affected by the flooding - but apparently that is having some effect on the returns that the IRS has screwed up

I honestly don't remember how we answered that question. I did fill out some question and answer thing for my tax guy but don't remember that question exactly. That's what I'm hoping to find out from him soon.

And yes, we did have the hurricane in Galveston in 2008. I hope that's not screwing us up now!

My gut feeling is that it has to do with the stimulus thing but I hope it can be fixed!

I heard the state of Conneticut was out of money... I don't know if it's true or not, but I submitted my taxes early this year and got my full refund already deposited, thank goodness!!! I pre-paid for a cruise on a credit card the day I filed my taxes, so I would have been REALLY screwed if I didnt get my refund! I am so sorry to hear about everyone else though! I couldn't imagine!

It's being automatically deposited. Yes, I will do that.
Thanks a bunch. Finger's crossed they didn't mess with mine.

No, I'm in SC

Yeah check on it, it should be as ours was, just one week. I was so happy to pull up our checking acct online today and seeing it was in there

It's going in today.:cheer::cheer::cheer::thumbs up:thumbs up

Full amount. I'll check at the end of the day.

Okay, if it says the 9th, then it's in there now, as it would have gone in lastnight at midnight. Can you check your cheking acct online?

Mine was automatically deposited too - but that didn't stop them from shorting me the $300.

Have you found out anything new with your problem? My husband went by the tax guy's office to pick up our forms and left a message for him regarding our problem. I hope to hear something soon.

I'd really like to hear what you find out to see if it helps us figure out our mess too.

The IRS are not the sharpest tools in the shed. Couple of years ago...we filed our taxes. We were getting money back..so they sent us our checks and then about 9 months later (see how on the ball they are?) they sent us a bill saying we owed them 400 dollars. Uhhhhhh WHY the hek would you send me a check if WE owed you money? PLUS they were charging me interest for those 9 months...UNBELIEVABLE! Well anyways...i knew they were in the wrong ...cause trust me hubby and i put ALOT of money each week in for taxes from our paychecks. So I called them up...yes, there is a phone number for the IRS ..i know sounds shocking LoL Well after i got done talking to the IRS person...they realized i didnt owe them 400$...they owed me 75$!!!!!!!!!! I told the guy on the phone..."see? maybe you should focus on the people that dont pay their taxes at all , instead of the ones that do!"

Don't always assume that just cause they are the IRS , they are in the right. Definitely question it and go over everything again with your tax person.

I missed her call :( - she called the house - not my cell. So I have a call back into her. But her message sounded like it had something to do with the education credits & that I would have some work to do :confused: before I called the IRS :eek: -- I don't want to call them - was hoping she would be the middle person.

Waiting to hear from her. Oh, yeah - I emailed her & sent the pet tax return too :p -- that should bring me a huge return.

I understand your frustration. I am going threw something similar. My tax lady told me that they do not have enough money to pay out and they are trying to prolong as much as possible to pay out.

Well the one thing we can all count on is the government to screw it up. Hubby and I have gotten our refund back but I\'m dealing with my mothers taxes and because of investments there\'s a hold up on them. It never fails always a hiccup. I just get so sick of all the red tape.:animal-pa