The IRS just cleared my bank account

[Buford]

This is one reason that my secondary "savings account" is a collection of physical gold and .999 silver that doesn't have any name attached to it and is hidden away. I know places that buy for cash, no questions asked, so good luck putting a hold on that. Well, and the other reason is the dollar is going to $#!t but gold/silver are holding value.

 

[the_bird]

I'm fully expecting this to be a full-on, hardcore Kafka-esque experience for you before all is said and done. Damn...

 

[TxBrew]

Where does one even buy physical gold and silver and know it's purity is legit.

 

[zoebisch01]

The problem here is, that I'm dealing with the goverment. There is no other agency that I could take my business to if I'm dissatisfied. That's why they don't have to care about us.

Yes I can take a lawyer, but they are going to charge almost as much as I'm expecting the amount to be reduced by. And the IRS knows that.

Kai

Yeah, that's true and horrible at the same time . Hopefully you can find someone with half an incentive to help sort this thing out on their side. Fwiw, if you find anyone that seems at least half nice and shows concern, get their extension for sure (if they can give it to you). I can't count the number of times an issue being resolved was directly related to the person I dealt with.

 

[jdoiv]

I guess I'm a hardass. I broke up with a former fiance 'cause her credit sucked. We went to get pre-approved for a mortgage and the mortgage broker called me up and asked how well I knew her. That was some sobering ****.

Kai, sounds like you knew about this in advance. Depending on how much money we are talking about, could be cheaper just to pay them off and move on. If it's a substantial amount, 5 digits, I would suggest finding a lawyer.

Best of luck.

 

[the_bird]

I just want to throw something out before it gets out of hand; let's not rush to any judgments about Kaiser's SWMBO and any mistakes that she may or may not have made. This is clearly a very personal subject, but it's not our place to get judgmental.

 

[uglygoat]

kai,

you need c4. lots of it.

 

[Klainmeister]

The problem here is, that I'm dealing with the goverment. There is no other agency that I could take my business to if I'm dissatisfied. That's why they don't have to care about us.

Yes I can take a lawyer, but they are going to charge almost as much as I'm expecting the amount to be reduced by. And the IRS knows that.

Kai

Well if it is truly their wrong-doing (as advised by your council), then you could probably have it stipulated that the defendants pay the court and attorney fees. Just throwing that out there.

 

[uwjester]

kai,

you need c4. lots of it.

Well it was just the IRS watching this conversation. Now its the FBI too.

//Where'd I put that tinfoil hat

 

[Kaiser]

I just want to throw something out before it gets out of hand; let's not rush to any judgments about Kaiser's SWMBO and any mistakes that she may or may not have made. This is clearly a very personal subject, but it's not our place to get judgmental.

It is a personal subject, but I'm not ashamed of it. She forgot to pay taxes. Well, some people do, especially when they are young and careless and I would have still married her if I had known. BUT the IRS should have been trying to get the money earlier.

This are these stupid things that try to knock you off your feet and you need to be prepared for the unexpected. For some families it's a severe illness, for others the house burned down for us its a stupid mistake that a goverment agency did. Recently I have been reading Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" and I liked it a lot. It basically compares geting wealthy to loosing weight which only works when you learn to live on less than you make and are prepared for some big unexpected blows.

Kai

 

[Kaiser]

Well if it is truly their wrong-doing (as advised by your council), then you could probably have it stipulated that the defendants pay the court and attorney fees. Just throwing that out there.

There is the option of Penalty Abatement, but not beeing told by the IRS is not listed as a reason and my wife was also not able to find success stories to our case on the web. But I feel that our case should be different than most no-IRS-notification cases since they clearly had her address for the last 3 years as we were getting refunds.

So we will try to explore that route and see what it will cost to get a professional and/or try to take it on by ourselves. The latter will not be as promising, but costs much less.

Kai

 

[the_bird]

So, do you know the amount that she owed in back taxes? Is that significant less than the amount they took out of your account? Are the monies really gonzo, or is the account just frozen pending resolution of this?

 

[Schlenkerla]

It is a personal subject, but I'm not ashamed of it. She forgot to pay taxes. Well, some people do, especially when they are young and careless and I would have still married her if I had known. BUT the IRS should have been trying to get the money earlier.

This are these stupid things that try to knock you off your feet and you need to be prepared for the unexpected. For some families it's a severe illness, for others the house burned down for us its a stupid mistake that a goverment agency did. Recently I have been reading Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" and I liked it a lot. It basically compares geting wealthy to loosing weight which only works when you learn to live on less than you make and are prepared for some big unexpected blows.

Kai

You said she was young and stupid at the time. Was she making enough dough to be owning the IRS cash? Most of us who are young and stupid make $hit for money. Unless she has a trust fund in her name.

I was in the military right after high school. My parents had a secret trust in my name and SSN and had been filing taxes on behalf of the account. It took a couple years for the IRS to figure I wasn't paying enough. I was only paying on my salary. The IRS let me know about, and it pissed me off somewhat but what I owed was peanuts to what was in the trust. I had no knowledge or control of the account.

My parents should have said something about it to me.

Hopefully the laywer can get you a good deal. Shop around and ask for references and call on them.

 

[c.n.budz]

I talked to a friend of mine who is an attorney for the IRS. According to him the IRS has to perform "due diligence" when it comes to notifying you about back taxes. Due diligence is basically just the normal steps you would take when trying to, in this case, find someone. From what my friend told me this pretty much boils down to sending letters to the last known address and maybe a little more, but no Sherlock Holmes stuff. As long as they did that they're covered, though he said they will usually try harder to track someone down.

He also said that you should definitely get an attorney if the amount owed is substantial. I really hope you can work this out.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Dave Ramsey is an EXCELLENT resource. Easy to understand, easy to remember, and easy to execute....if you have a bit of self discipline. It's that last one that's the hardest I think everyone should be required to read money makeover...if they did, our economy would be much stronger.

 

[Buford]

I went through that young-and-stupid phase and racked up a ton of debt over several years - somewhere around $16,000. Paying minimum payments and missing a few on credit cards digs the hole even deeper. I finally got my @$$ in gear, paid off my car and used the title to get a loan at my credit union to cover part of that at a much lower interest rate and an unsecured loan at a higher rate (but still lower than I was paying) to cover the rest. I made up a spreadsheet and a payment schedule and stuck to it, and got those suckers totally paid off in a little over a year.

 

[sirsloop]

geez man... they wiped your checking account clean eh? Like others mentioned, its a good thing to have some cash tucked away in various places, including physical commodities like gold or silver. Who's to say the world doesn't go to ****, the American dollar becomes worthless overnight, and the only thing of true value is gems, metals, or other commodities. A massive nuclear attack, disease epidemic, or war could do it...

Anyways, best of luck getting out of trouble. Sounds like you have some cash layin around... and both of you still have your health so you'll come out ok.

geez... lemmie check MY checking and savings accounts...HAHAH!!... ok.. WHEW...

 

[sirsloop]

oh ya...


RDWHA(couple)HB's

 

[Chriso]

Just because I thought it was creepy, I thought I'd share with ya --- after talking about SWMBO's credit history to y'all yesterday? Yeah. She got a call last night that someone is claiming garnishings on her wages. So that's getting sorted out today. Teh suck.