Gone on a Lucky Country

Just Kidding!  The letter says that we owe them $2,300.00 from our 2009 return that was done incorrectly. In a way, I had been expecting the letter; but I hadn't been expecting it quite so soon and I certainly wasn't expecting it to be so much.  Last year when I filed our taxes, I wasn't thinking about the liquidation of my parent's assets after my Mom died...  So, when I got some additional tax forms about a month after I filed, I realised that they were really supposed to be included in the original filing.  We were deep in the middle of our move to Australia though so I was distracted enough to just throw them in a folder and deal with it later.  

At Christmas, I was talking to friends about it and I started getting really freaked out that I was going to get in huge trouble if I didn't fix it right then and there.  So, I slowly started the process of getting the right year of Turbo Tax re-installed on my computer, finding my original tax return and going through the amendment process.  When I got to the end of the amendment, It said that we owed a thousand dollars.  I was so mad that I had to pay a penalty for having dead parents that I actually declared our charitable donations for the year.  I've never declared them in the past because it feels slightly wrong getting a tax break for doing what you should be doing in the first place.  I know, that's stupid and idealistic.   Anywho, entering all that stuff brought our total owed down to $675.00.  That was a number that I could live with and I had a brilliant idea: I would save the amended return, file my 2010 taxes and then use part of my 2010 return to pay what I owed in 2009.  Personally, I thought that was bloody brilliant.

I still haven't filed my 2010 taxes though because I was waiting for the Aussie tax year to end (June 30th) so I could file them together.  Don't worry, I filed the extension paperwork for the IRS so I don't think I will get in trouble there.  I was going to start the US taxes last week and when I went though all my paperwork, I realised that we had never gotten Joe's W-2 from his employer in the States.  We've requested a re-print; but we still haven't gotten it.

But - back to the outrageous amount that the IRS feels they deserve from me - beyond the thousand dollars that I already knew about, they are also saying that I claimed excess SS tax or some such rubbish...  I did the taxes through Turbo Tax and I even had H&R Block check them when I was done so how could that have happened?  Who knows...

Anyway, I got all ready to call them last night - I ate some a lot of chocolate, I had some a lot of Jack Daniels, waited till after 9pm (7am in the States) and logged on to Skype.  I was ready - well, maybe not ready, but at least resigned.  The line rang and rang and then told me they were closed!  What?  I double checked the times and the time zones only to realise that it was the Fourth of July.

So, I have to call tonight and figure this all out....