I still owe so I shouldn't have to pay you

[taxguykarl]

First sucky tax scammer of the season:

A CW related this story:

SC filed at another office that was owned by the same franchise owner. He omitted a couple of 1099's that showed that he made a total of 19K more he reported on his return. For those who don't know better: Just about any tax form is CC'ed to the IRS.

SC had what we euphemistically call the "love letter" aka CP 2000 or a Notice of Proposed Adjustment for Underpayment.

That notice showed him owing an additional $8k (Ouch!) in back taxes, penalties and interest.

SC wanted CW to 'fix it'. SC gave CW a scrap of paper 'Business milage [SIC] 150 miles daily 12 months'. IOW he wanted to claim that he racked up 54750 miles--a trucker maybe, but a sales rep...yeah right. To top it off he wanted CW to prepare an amended return for free. Yeah right--not gonna happen.

CW filled the amended return out, per SC's request--he now only owed $3K in back taxes. CW called the SC and he balked at paying since he still owed.

[lineswine]

Even on our crowded wee island, I've done an average of 1000 miles a week as an installation/service engineer for over a year, so I can actually believe that.
OK, so it was a company vehicle, but still feasible.

[taxguykarl]

Even on our crowded wee island, I've done an average of 1000 miles a week as an installation/service engineer for over a year, so I can actually believe that.
OK, so it was a company vehicle, but still feasible.

Maybe so. However, every legitimate mileage claim I've ever seen had an log and wasn't a nice round figure like that. Moreover, he reported no other expenses (red flag #2).

[barainga]

While not related to your story your title instantly reminded me of a call I took.
A womand hadnt payed her bill in like 4 months... and she actually said she thought that after two months we just wrote the debt off and she wouldnt owe it anymore.

She called in because her service was suspended for non-payment. It was very hard not to laugh at her.

[Marmalady]

Ah well you see, she saw the words 'Final Demand' on the letter and thought it meant that it was the last time you were going to ask for the money.

[Legal Eagle]

Ah well you see, she saw the words 'Final Demand' on the letter and thought it meant that it was the last time you were going to ask for the money.

to be fair it was, you stopped asking. you just cut the supply instead

[Marmalady]

you just cut the supply instead

That's what's known as an 'attention-getter'.

[barainga]

That's what's known as an 'attention-getter'.

Yeah.. since all the calls and letters were ignored, seems the only way to get through to people is to make so they cant get through to anybody. I love how they say they dont know why they cant make any calls when they first talk to a rep when you know they know that they havent payed thier bills.

[AccountingDrone]

Maybe so. However, every legitimate mileage claim I've ever seen had an log and wasn't a nice round figure like that. Moreover, he reported no other expenses (red flag #2).

measured mileage from the farm to wells fargo in hartford 50.1 miles to the back corner of the parking lot. one way. 100 miles per day.

measured mileage from farm to state farm call center, cheshire [when it was open] 74.9 and a squidge miles one way. All depends on if I was parked in my field or not, and where in that huge ass parking lot I parked.

Yes, people can live at pretty exact measured zeros at times.

[Virulent]

Oh ho ho ho... The IRS doesn't like it when you don't pay up. And what a lame attempt at a scam. If he really was doing all that traveling for business, I agree - I bet he would have additional expenses besides just the gas. Why not just hide all of your money away in a health savings account to avoid taxes instead?

[Kristev]

Hopefully, he won't be travelling anywhere anytime soon.

[Greenday]

Wait, is anyone surprised at someone purposely trying to cheat taxes then refusing to pay for services rendered?

[Argabarga]

Maybe so. However, every legitimate mileage claim I've ever seen had an log and wasn't a nice round figure like that. Moreover, he reported no other expenses (red flag #2).

THere's a 1 in 10 chance that any position on the odometer will stop on "0", just like there's a 1 in 10 chance it'll stop on "1" through "9" , a "round" reading is not suspicious.

I've towed wrecked cars who's odometers stopped at something like "89,400.0" on the button, it happens.

[lineswine]

Maybe so. However, every legitimate mileage claim I've ever seen had an log and wasn't a nice round figure like that. Moreover, he reported no other expenses (red flag #2).

It was precisely 52 miles to my main base from home, so my mileage expenses sheet would you'd see something like:-

Monday = 104
Tuesday = 104
Wednesday = 104
Thursday = 104
Friday = 104
etc. etc.

OK, if I visited other sites (of which I covered 8) it would differ, but some weeks were exactly as above.

[Pedersen]

I have to say that I find it amusing that everybody is pointing out specific individual counterexamples to a general rule.

I could get quite snarky, but I won't. Instead, I'll point this out: The poster in question deals with mileage logs day in/day out for taxes. He sees a wider variety of them than most all of the rest of us. For him, in his experience, an extremely even number for an annual log is extremely unusual, and worth double-checking.

It would be like me getting a support call and being told "I didn't do anything! It just stopped working!" My very first reaction would be to try to find out what actually happened. 99% of the time, getting that message (just like getting a very round number for an annual mileage log) is someone lying to me.

It's a red flag. You might not like it, you might be a personal counter example, with everything being exactly the same mileage day in, day out, more regular than clockwork, but you are not the norm.