Hi folks, we’re back. I’m sorry that we haven’t blogged for a whole week! We arrived home from Hawaii on Thanksgiving morning, spent time with family over the holiday weekend and finally got back into the office on Monday. There is always a period of “catch up time” after coming home from a trip.

Once we did get into the office, we had the wonderful privilege of dealing with the IRS. They sent a bill to us without any explanation of why we owed the money. I spent time talking with our CPA and the IRS to figure out what was going on. Basically, it comes down to this. We were billed for a late payment five years ago and thought we paid the amount in full. Five years later the IRS informs us that we still owed $15.37 and fives years worth of interest ($9.73). There is more, but I’ll have you read my letter to the IRS for those details.

IRS:

Enclosed is our check for $25.10 for an unpaid balance and interest. Before the check is cashed, I would ask you to consider a couple of things.

1) The penalties are from the tax period of December 31, 2002. By law you are required to inform us of any penalties every year that they are due. Since this is the first notice we have received in FIVE years, we request that the whole debt of $25.10 be cancelled. I realize that we are only required to pay the $15.37 for the original balance, but since the money wasn’t important FIVE years ago, it makes no sense why you should even attempt to collect on it now.

2) Once we received the past due tax statement, there was no explanation for why we were expected to pay this amount. We do not appreciate the notice on the back of the statement that says, “If you don’t agree with the amount shown on the statement, please call us at 1-800-829-0115, or write to us at the address listed on the payment stub. You will need to tell us why you don’t agree and you may need to send us information to support your statement.”

It is amazing that the IRS would require someone to prove why they do not owe a certain amount before the IRS proves why they expect it. Whatever happened to being innocent until proven guilty? If the IRS is going to collect money from someone, the IRS should at the very least inform the billed party as to why the amount is owed. To illustrate our point, if we sent our payment without the payment stub, you probably would have some difficulty in figuring out why you received the check. That confusion compounds when you receive a bill instead.

If the IRS decides to do the honorable thing, we would appreciate it if the check and debt were cancelled.

Sincerely,
Keith Walker

Evidence Ministries

P.S. The IRS owes us $7,453,784.65. If you do not agree with this amount, please
write to us. You may need to send us information to support your statement.
Merry CHRISTmas.