Addendum: Here is a picture of Jill happy now that her IRS ordeal is over.I know you've all been waiting anxiously to hear about Jill's IRS audit. She had originally been scheduled for April 8 but was rescheduled to today, April 15th. Her appointment was at 1:00 pm today, if you note the post time for this you'll see that it did not last the 3 hours it was scheduled for. But on to the story.
Her appointment was at the Federal building in Oakland. We left in plenty of time to get to the appointment at 1pm. Unfortunately once we arrived there was a huge line to go through the scanner to get into the building. Now bear in mind people, this is where your tax dollars are going. There is one scanner, you have to empty your pockets, show ID and go through one at a time. The guy (who had a gun, a big mistake in my opinion) who was shepherding people through had apparently taken slow motion pills this morning. It took approximately 30 minutes for us to get through the line. The average time for each person to go through the scanner seemed to be about 2 minutes. Jill & I took about 30 seconds because we had our ID out and were prepared. Something that apparently the rest of the people in line were incapable of doing. By the time we got upstairs we were 20 minutes late. Ok, that's the end of my ranting about inefficiency.
On to the actual audit. The auditor was very nice and wasn't concerned about us being late. She explained that Jill was part of a random audit study and had not been singled out (which we'd all been telling her). I kindly gave her the copies I had made of Jill's returns for the last three years. Note that by doing this I saved the government the cost of photocopying three pages.
After this preliminary stuff, the auditor explained that she had some questions she had to ask about income. These were questions like: did you receive any tips, any compensation from hobbies, etc. You would think this would be pretty straightforward, right? Not if you know Jill. One of the questions was about bonuses. So Jill says, "I got a bonus for my certification. I think it was in my paycheck." I explained that it was. The auditor, sensing a big cover-up, asked about mileage. Jill says, "They reimbursed me for mileage, it might have been in my paycheck but I'm not sure." I was trying not to laugh while at the same time getting a little worried. Jill is extremely honest and very, very literal.
The next question was about gifts and I thought - great she's going to tell her every gift she received that year. Fortunately she didn't. The next question was about income from e-commerce. Jill hesitates and I knew she was thinking that she had bought stuff on ebay. Fortunately she went with saying nothing, but when we left she said she had thought about ebay. Anyway she did ok until the auditor asked if she had prepared her taxes. Jill says no and doesn't say anything else. So then she asked who did them and she points at me. Then she asked me if I was paid to do them & when I said no, said if I got paid I had to sign the form. The auditor didn't seem real concerned about any of this - I think by that time she had caught on that Jill had no real clue as to what the whole tax thing was about.
After the questions the auditor said she would be back, that she needed to research something. I admit that did worry me a little. She was gone maybe five minutes and came back and said she was recommending no change, that nothing was owed. Shocking conclusion right? She gave us a nice paper saying this & said a final letter would be received in a few weeks. All together we were there about 30 minutes. I had been worried at one point that we'd be there all day when she asked Jill what her certification was for. Jill explained it was for plants and told her about the test and how she had to identify plants. Once the word plants leaves Jill's mouth it can be difficult to get her to stop talking.
It was, aside from going through the scanner thing, a pretty painless experience. The worst part was that it cost me $8 to park. I couldn't find a place at a meter & had to go into the garage. I'm saving the receipt to deduct on my taxes next year. I figure the IRS owes me something.
Note: This is it folks, post #99. The next one will be 100. If you haven't sent me something, do it fast!!!!
Robin, the still lonely blog mistress
Her appointment was at the Federal building in Oakland. We left in plenty of time to get to the appointment at 1pm. Unfortunately once we arrived there was a huge line to go through the scanner to get into the building. Now bear in mind people, this is where your tax dollars are going. There is one scanner, you have to empty your pockets, show ID and go through one at a time. The guy (who had a gun, a big mistake in my opinion) who was shepherding people through had apparently taken slow motion pills this morning. It took approximately 30 minutes for us to get through the line. The average time for each person to go through the scanner seemed to be about 2 minutes. Jill & I took about 30 seconds because we had our ID out and were prepared. Something that apparently the rest of the people in line were incapable of doing. By the time we got upstairs we were 20 minutes late. Ok, that's the end of my ranting about inefficiency.
On to the actual audit. The auditor was very nice and wasn't concerned about us being late. She explained that Jill was part of a random audit study and had not been singled out (which we'd all been telling her). I kindly gave her the copies I had made of Jill's returns for the last three years. Note that by doing this I saved the government the cost of photocopying three pages.
After this preliminary stuff, the auditor explained that she had some questions she had to ask about income. These were questions like: did you receive any tips, any compensation from hobbies, etc. You would think this would be pretty straightforward, right? Not if you know Jill. One of the questions was about bonuses. So Jill says, "I got a bonus for my certification. I think it was in my paycheck." I explained that it was. The auditor, sensing a big cover-up, asked about mileage. Jill says, "They reimbursed me for mileage, it might have been in my paycheck but I'm not sure." I was trying not to laugh while at the same time getting a little worried. Jill is extremely honest and very, very literal.
The next question was about gifts and I thought - great she's going to tell her every gift she received that year. Fortunately she didn't. The next question was about income from e-commerce. Jill hesitates and I knew she was thinking that she had bought stuff on ebay. Fortunately she went with saying nothing, but when we left she said she had thought about ebay. Anyway she did ok until the auditor asked if she had prepared her taxes. Jill says no and doesn't say anything else. So then she asked who did them and she points at me. Then she asked me if I was paid to do them & when I said no, said if I got paid I had to sign the form. The auditor didn't seem real concerned about any of this - I think by that time she had caught on that Jill had no real clue as to what the whole tax thing was about.
After the questions the auditor said she would be back, that she needed to research something. I admit that did worry me a little. She was gone maybe five minutes and came back and said she was recommending no change, that nothing was owed. Shocking conclusion right? She gave us a nice paper saying this & said a final letter would be received in a few weeks. All together we were there about 30 minutes. I had been worried at one point that we'd be there all day when she asked Jill what her certification was for. Jill explained it was for plants and told her about the test and how she had to identify plants. Once the word plants leaves Jill's mouth it can be difficult to get her to stop talking.
It was, aside from going through the scanner thing, a pretty painless experience. The worst part was that it cost me $8 to park. I couldn't find a place at a meter & had to go into the garage. I'm saving the receipt to deduct on my taxes next year. I figure the IRS owes me something.
Note: This is it folks, post #99. The next one will be 100. If you haven't sent me something, do it fast!!!!
Robin, the still lonely blog mistress
2 comments:
All I can say is, I liked the title you gave your post..."Jill & the IRS"...classic!!
Jill is so cute!! Sweet pic!
Post a Comment