Did you get an IRS refund this year after you did your taxes? We got lucky and got one.

But then, a few months later, we got a big fatty envelope in the mail:

Apparently they decided give and take is fair game, and if the IRS gives us a refund, we should give them one, too.

Wait, what?

I’m not kidding. The IRS told us we should pay them $24,000. They said I mis-reported my income in 2010.

As someone who knows exactly what happens when you don’t tell the IRS how much you’re making, and all of the financial troubles that come when they finally catch up to you, I am a stickler for recording everything. I am super on the ball about entering things in Quickbooks, and projects that are paid in cash… I report every last cent of it.

I had a heart attack when I saw how much the IRS wanted, so Joshnigel read through the paperwork and found the problem almost immediately.

Turns out, the IRS made a typo when they were entering in one of my 1099’s from 2010. A client that paid me $600 for a project got entered in to the IRS system as a client that paid me $60,000. And I only paid taxes on the $600, so uh…

We owe money on the typo.

This is not quite an IRS refund, guys.

 

Thankfully, we have an awesome tax guy. Mr. Paul Scholz has been a family friend for years, and is our go to guy for all things having to do with fiscal responsibility. (He’s the reason Joshnigel doesn’t own that zoo that was for sale on Craigslist.) Paul’s been in touch with the IRS and is helping us get everything worked out. Apparently it’ll take a few months before everything is where it should be, but in the meantime it shouldn’t affect our credit score or anything like that.

Whew.

Now if there was a way to get the IRS to give US $24,000 for our time and heart attacks, we’d be set. Or if we could get that client to go ahead and give us $60,000… We’d happily pay the taxes on it.

Well maybe not happily. But we’d do it. And then maybe we could have some kind of refund next tax time, too? Please and thank you?

(Disclosure: Photos have been edited to remove all personal information. Sorry I can’t give you my social security number and home address, guys.)