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My new location seems to attract some serious drama queens and kings. I'll blame my predecessor as she is a serious drama queen, but that's another post. I’ll go chronological order:
E came in one evening ranting about identity theft. I filled out the ID theft form and the one for an identity theft PIN.He frequently pissed and moaned about how we couldn’t just “look it up online”. The answer is that capability requires a phone number and email you trust and you claim that they were both compromised in the last breath. See also https://api.id.me/en/registration/new
E dropped off a grocery bag of records. I found return transcripts in that mess which included mostly complete bank statements and other records.
In most future exchanges ranting about mommie dearest skimming money from him, including the three Economic Impact Payments (stimuli) and quoting her as an unimpeachable source (and missing the irony by a country mile).
His definition (at the risk of telling a lame Clinton joke) of arguing apparently does not include contradicting every sentence I speak.
When I managed to make something out of these records. No, there is no big refund coming. E volunteered that I didn’t have the complete records and asked for them back–after I spent half a day organizing and compiling enough verifiable information to complete 3 years worth of returns. May his new target have as much fun. Yes, I’m still waiting for him to bring the complete records.
R came in ranting about how she was in contact with Corporate and they had no idea what to do with her case. She would not stop ranting about deceptive practices in other franchises (yeah, years ago and hundreds of miles away, as if that’s relevant to the matter at hand). Also she did not get any of the stimulus payments. SIDENOTE: You haven’t seen entitlement ‘til this topic comes up!! Especially those who did not get theirs.
When she finally stopped venting long enough to give me information long enough to even look up her file. I found that she filed for 2017. This is March 2022 she brought this to my attention 11 months too late to file an amendment. With her gone and not running her mouth fast enough to out talk an auctioneer, I could finally do a proper analysis of her situation. It seems she had a federal earned income credit disallowed for some reason–why we may never know as the deadline to appeal is long past. There were some ineligible dependents on her return for that year: they were unrelated people that she “was taking care of” (her words). Even if we could remove them in an amended return, she would be on the hook for $500+ for Illinois. Needless to say she did not take that news well.
As for the stimulus payments: To claim them she would have to file tax returns. She claimed to have no income for the years in question (far from the first case of this). I had her returns ready for her signature and payment (come to think of it, they are still on hold for that). She made an appointment and did not show, not even for the rescheduled appointment. I’m still waiting for her to come in and complete those returns.
The next queen was J (not be confused with my sister J or niece J). J’s son called and demanded the manager (oh, the joys of this new title
). When I identified myself as such he claimed that one of my preparers mucked up his mother’s (J’s) return from last year by claiming income of $100,000 and that J is freaking out over this. I noted that I would have to see the notice and return and could obviously do nothing about this over the phone. He ended the call with a veiled threat to sue (good luck with our ironclad arbitration agreement).
J herself called and made an appointment–so much for the easy part
She had the notice. I printed the tax return in question (it was from last year). Unsurprisingly, she and her son misread the notice (J wouldn’t be a drama queen if she didn’t). The notice said that EIP2 (the $600 stimulus) was denied and listed the reasons. Those rocket scientists somehow interpreted ‘may be’ to be interchangeable with ‘is’. Yes, income over $100k was one of the possible reasons for denial. The other possible reasons listed included being claimed as a dependent, and already receiving the payment. After much explaining and J’s frequent water works, which (which would embarrass the late Tammy Faye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Faye_Messner). During which she put up a herculean effort to not understand–and kept insisting that her income was reported over $100k. I finally got through to her that she was misreading the notice. I pointed out the next paragraph which gave a deadline to appeal that finding: two months from the date of the notice. The notice was dated in October 2021, this happened in March 2022–do the math. Nonetheless, I prepared her appeal and 2021 tax return to claim the third stimulus which she also did not receive.
At least there was a paid return with this one.
T (not to be confused with ex-SM T https://www.customerssuck.com/board/...eah-right-long )
Came in with a stack of stuff. It seems he has an IRS notice about a balance due. He babbled about the outfit he used to go to “doing something wrong”.
He had several years’ transcripts of returns and income. When I finally had these all sorted out, I found the reason he kept owing was that one of his annuities ($30k+) had less than $1k in withholdings when he is in the 25% bracket. See the problem? All these years he didn’t or refused to do anything about it (the later IMO)....and kept adding $5k and change to his existing tax debt.
When I approached the topic of boosting his withholding and getting on a payment plan, he replied with a lengthy and melodramatic screed. To put it in one sentence: he made too many other peoples’ problems his. He is apparently still supporting at least one set of adult children and in-laws as well as live-in “long-time friend”.
At least this T had the decency to admit that he was mostly there to (and I quote) “bellyache” about the problem….all of which were his making, but solutions require him to do something about it.
Then there was this ray of hope: R was referred by his girlfriend who filed earlier that week. She accompanied him to do an amended state return. Illinois gives a credit for property taxes. R gave a sob story about his returns getting intercepted for a child support debt. I prepped his 2021 return on the spot. His refund seriously dented the $5k debt. He didn’t have the docs for the prior years for which he didn’t file. His 2020 return with $1800 in stimulus alone would annihilate the debt. To obtain a substitute for the docs (and prove beyond a doubt that he did not get the stimulus), we had to create an account https://api.id.me/en/registration/new. This proved to be quite a PITA as his phone kept stalling when it came to the selfie verification scan phase of the process. After 8 attempts, we finally got through. We created his file and printed the transcripts. I finished his returns and found the refunds to be more than enough to pay the debt. I can honestly say, I’m happy for him getting that monkey off his back. I just hope he spends some of the remaining money for a new phone and better plan.
E came in one evening ranting about identity theft. I filled out the ID theft form and the one for an identity theft PIN.He frequently pissed and moaned about how we couldn’t just “look it up online”. The answer is that capability requires a phone number and email you trust and you claim that they were both compromised in the last breath. See also https://api.id.me/en/registration/new
E dropped off a grocery bag of records. I found return transcripts in that mess which included mostly complete bank statements and other records.
In most future exchanges ranting about mommie dearest skimming money from him, including the three Economic Impact Payments (stimuli) and quoting her as an unimpeachable source (and missing the irony by a country mile).
His definition (at the risk of telling a lame Clinton joke) of arguing apparently does not include contradicting every sentence I speak.
When I managed to make something out of these records. No, there is no big refund coming. E volunteered that I didn’t have the complete records and asked for them back–after I spent half a day organizing and compiling enough verifiable information to complete 3 years worth of returns. May his new target have as much fun. Yes, I’m still waiting for him to bring the complete records.
R came in ranting about how she was in contact with Corporate and they had no idea what to do with her case. She would not stop ranting about deceptive practices in other franchises (yeah, years ago and hundreds of miles away, as if that’s relevant to the matter at hand). Also she did not get any of the stimulus payments. SIDENOTE: You haven’t seen entitlement ‘til this topic comes up!! Especially those who did not get theirs.
When she finally stopped venting long enough to give me information long enough to even look up her file. I found that she filed for 2017. This is March 2022 she brought this to my attention 11 months too late to file an amendment. With her gone and not running her mouth fast enough to out talk an auctioneer, I could finally do a proper analysis of her situation. It seems she had a federal earned income credit disallowed for some reason–why we may never know as the deadline to appeal is long past. There were some ineligible dependents on her return for that year: they were unrelated people that she “was taking care of” (her words). Even if we could remove them in an amended return, she would be on the hook for $500+ for Illinois. Needless to say she did not take that news well.
As for the stimulus payments: To claim them she would have to file tax returns. She claimed to have no income for the years in question (far from the first case of this). I had her returns ready for her signature and payment (come to think of it, they are still on hold for that). She made an appointment and did not show, not even for the rescheduled appointment. I’m still waiting for her to come in and complete those returns.
The next queen was J (not be confused with my sister J or niece J). J’s son called and demanded the manager (oh, the joys of this new title
). When I identified myself as such he claimed that one of my preparers mucked up his mother’s (J’s) return from last year by claiming income of $100,000 and that J is freaking out over this. I noted that I would have to see the notice and return and could obviously do nothing about this over the phone. He ended the call with a veiled threat to sue (good luck with our ironclad arbitration agreement).J herself called and made an appointment–so much for the easy part
She had the notice. I printed the tax return in question (it was from last year). Unsurprisingly, she and her son misread the notice (J wouldn’t be a drama queen if she didn’t). The notice said that EIP2 (the $600 stimulus) was denied and listed the reasons. Those rocket scientists somehow interpreted ‘may be’ to be interchangeable with ‘is’. Yes, income over $100k was one of the possible reasons for denial. The other possible reasons listed included being claimed as a dependent, and already receiving the payment. After much explaining and J’s frequent water works, which (which would embarrass the late Tammy Faye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Faye_Messner). During which she put up a herculean effort to not understand–and kept insisting that her income was reported over $100k. I finally got through to her that she was misreading the notice. I pointed out the next paragraph which gave a deadline to appeal that finding: two months from the date of the notice. The notice was dated in October 2021, this happened in March 2022–do the math. Nonetheless, I prepared her appeal and 2021 tax return to claim the third stimulus which she also did not receive.
At least there was a paid return with this one.
T (not to be confused with ex-SM T https://www.customerssuck.com/board/...eah-right-long )
Came in with a stack of stuff. It seems he has an IRS notice about a balance due. He babbled about the outfit he used to go to “doing something wrong”.
He had several years’ transcripts of returns and income. When I finally had these all sorted out, I found the reason he kept owing was that one of his annuities ($30k+) had less than $1k in withholdings when he is in the 25% bracket. See the problem? All these years he didn’t or refused to do anything about it (the later IMO)....and kept adding $5k and change to his existing tax debt.
When I approached the topic of boosting his withholding and getting on a payment plan, he replied with a lengthy and melodramatic screed. To put it in one sentence: he made too many other peoples’ problems his. He is apparently still supporting at least one set of adult children and in-laws as well as live-in “long-time friend”.
At least this T had the decency to admit that he was mostly there to (and I quote) “bellyache” about the problem….all of which were his making, but solutions require him to do something about it.
Then there was this ray of hope: R was referred by his girlfriend who filed earlier that week. She accompanied him to do an amended state return. Illinois gives a credit for property taxes. R gave a sob story about his returns getting intercepted for a child support debt. I prepped his 2021 return on the spot. His refund seriously dented the $5k debt. He didn’t have the docs for the prior years for which he didn’t file. His 2020 return with $1800 in stimulus alone would annihilate the debt. To obtain a substitute for the docs (and prove beyond a doubt that he did not get the stimulus), we had to create an account https://api.id.me/en/registration/new. This proved to be quite a PITA as his phone kept stalling when it came to the selfie verification scan phase of the process. After 8 attempts, we finally got through. We created his file and printed the transcripts. I finished his returns and found the refunds to be more than enough to pay the debt. I can honestly say, I’m happy for him getting that monkey off his back. I just hope he spends some of the remaining money for a new phone and better plan.
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