Sign of the times

Taxes. I’ve talked about taxes before.

You know about taxes.

Taxes is the money taken out of your paycheck to fund the congress, the President, the armed forces, and all those federal agencies that spend your money all over the world to represent this United States of America. There is also the state tax that funds the roads and bridges and parks and recreation and education and public housing and stuff like that. Then there is property tax where you continue to pay the city or county for the land you purchase to build your shelter. Then there is the sales tax to add to the price of items you buy.

You get the idea.

I’ve filed my tax returns since 1971 and attach a check if I owe something. Mostly got a refund since I never made that much money and had more money deducted than required. It was a summer bonus.

There are all sorts of deductions, loopholes and forms that can reduce the requirement in the tax table, but if you don’t have children or medical problems or a room full of accountants then get out the checkbook.

I’ve been pretty much standard form with a minimal refund due to fixed income, but last year I moved some money around and had to pay some big checks.

I figured I might get audited due to the difference but two weeks after mailing the envelopes, the checks cleared the bank. This year I’ll go back to be a poor old retired man with the EZ form and a stamp.

But wait! This is the year of the pandemic.

Last month I get a letter from the Taxation department that there is an adjustment to my 2019 tax. It wasn’t an audit notice but a strange chart showing what I’d previously paid, the adjustment calculated and the preferred tax. There were no instructions to pay.

I checked the bank again and the check had been cashed in April.

I put the letter aside because the adjustment noted did not add up with the tax table. 

A few years ago I was sending in my tax form and a check on time, then started getting a refund. This happened two years in a row and I couldn’t figure it out so I called my brother who is a mathematical whiz and was also working at H&R Block doing people taxes. He showed me what I was doing wrong and since then it has been a 30-minute process to fill out the forms, print them out and take them to the post office.

To make a long story longer, I got another letter from the Commonwealth. This one had a bill in it.

The amount due was my previous payment plus a late charge and a fee.

Again I checked the bank and found the number of the check and the date it was cashed preparing to write a letter to contest the additional tax.

Instead I checked both letters and found a pair of phone numbers. I selected one and prepared to be on a phone tree for hours.

After two clicks, I was talking to a real person. I calmly explained my confusion and gave him all the numbers he requested. Without being forwarded or getting assistance from a superior or placed on hold, he saw the problem and came up with a solution on the spot.

Since the Taxation department’s calculation was a reduction in the tax that had already been paid six months earlier, what was this new tax?

He said he would contact the processing department and I should get a refund in two weeks. “It has been a difficult year.”

I haven’t gotten a check or another letter but that sums up another 2020 surprise.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

 

 

Beware the pennies on your eyes.