I haven't posted here in ages.
And now, of my three blogs, I'm not sure where to post this; Is it in the field of healthcare/nursing? Or in the sphere of health-wellness? Or in this realm, of money and taxes and the government?
I decided on this blog, as I haven't written here in a while.
I saw the news article today about the 24 year old American man who died of a toothache because he was unable to find affordable healthcare.
The tooth infection spread to his brain, and he died.
It is 2011.
He had two prescriptions from the realm of heathcare: one for painkillers, another for antibiotics. He chose the painkillers - only to fill that one as he only had enough money for one. He chose wrong. I guess the doctors and nurses and techs at the hospital ER he visited were too busy to teach him that the antibiotics would eventually knock out the infection, thus easing the inflammation that caused the pain. To get the tooth removed was the ultimate cure, then the pills. But he chose the worst option.
I imagine no one taught him. No one assumed he didn't know. No one cared to find out. Or may they were all too busy and overloaded with patients they thought this, and planned to do some teaching, but were not able due to the more pressing immediate demands of their jobs.
Point is, he didn't help himself and our diseaseprocessing system didn't help him much either.
There are two issues here that I see that fit into my other blogs. On the surface, it seems that money was the problem - he didn't have enough money for both svripts to be filled, so he chose the painkiller script to fill.
But in reference to my other blogs, it was a health-wellness issue (lack of education and prevention) as well as healthcare issue ( he wasn't given direction of what to do, nor assessed to see his situation). Social workers, doctors and nurses failed this man. He was processed. He wasn't cared for. I am at this juncture taking a stand and in my use, changing the word "healthcare" to "healthprocess". Actually, it should be 'diseaseprocess" . For having worked as a nurse since '05, that is what I see: people are vehicles for their disease processes which are alloted RUGS (payment for each disease) and their diseases are processed.
So, I will publish this post on my nursing blog "The peripheral" as well as my health-wellness blog "Run RN Aloft".
This is time to tell the inside story of the world of disease processing.
Yes, people live longer with the help of drugs and doctors and nurses and treatments and procedures.
But they pay a price - they are not dealt with systemically as human beings. Too many are mistreated or not treated at all. Their circumstances and education levels are ignored or overlooked. They are not cared for.
I propose a major truth change: take the word 'care' out of healthcare.
Kyle Willis lost his life.
it appears he wasn't educated very well.
He wasn't cared for by the 'health care' system he entered.
He was an American who couldn't navigate the system. I also read he was unemployed.
And because of that he lost his life.
How many unheard of lives are lost due to these causes.
And now, with unemployment rising, and Americans collectively sinking on scales of competiveness and test-taking compared with others around the globe, Kyle Willis won't be the last.
Who is a major force behind his death: the current American congress, and the era of entitlement and greed that set so many people up to lose their souls in return for bank profits, CEO bonuses, stock options and huge traders' fees.
Our American egos and fear due to our inability to look beyond our own selfish needs got us here.
We are all in this together Believe it or not.
Friday, September 16, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Changing blog's name
It's been a while since I posted a blog entry here.
Thinking about this blog, and rereading some of it, the title isn't very appropo; rather than the IRS, I blog about the state of Ill's revenue dept to some great degree.
On top of that, to bring things up to date: I am still having problems related to that point that compelled me to write this blog: my credit was ruined by my ex-husband who covertly put my name on a credit card and defaulted on it.
Now I believe it is this poor credit rating that has lost me a couple of new job opportunities.
And as my other blogs, I write to share this info to help others. In this blog, it is to tell this story so that others may avoid these traps I fell into for one reason or another.
My goal is to repair my credit now due to my bad marriage and it's seemingly chronic negative effects in my life at this point - basically nine years after I filed for divorce.
So, I rename this blog: Sequella of a bad divorce
Thinking about this blog, and rereading some of it, the title isn't very appropo; rather than the IRS, I blog about the state of Ill's revenue dept to some great degree.
On top of that, to bring things up to date: I am still having problems related to that point that compelled me to write this blog: my credit was ruined by my ex-husband who covertly put my name on a credit card and defaulted on it.
Now I believe it is this poor credit rating that has lost me a couple of new job opportunities.
And as my other blogs, I write to share this info to help others. In this blog, it is to tell this story so that others may avoid these traps I fell into for one reason or another.
My goal is to repair my credit now due to my bad marriage and it's seemingly chronic negative effects in my life at this point - basically nine years after I filed for divorce.
So, I rename this blog: Sequella of a bad divorce
Monday, May 12, 2008
Feds get it, state of ill doesn't
There's something to be said about bureaucracy and effiency. Some have it; some don't. Why? People.
Here's my situation to compare, again, the IRS and the Dept of Revenue with the state of ill (Illinois - phonetically "ill-annoy") with the IRS: I go to the closing of the luxury vacation home that has multiple liens on it. Title company issues checks that day to pay off IRS and the state of ill. Two days later, talk to the IRS agent, who has the check in his hand.
Cut to two WEEKS later, and the idiots in Springfield who, from the start of my adventure with them, project themselves as a collection of inbred rednecks with attitude, still have no idea where the check is or if it has been deposited or if it has even arrived!
No computer can give any of these bottom-of-the-barrel collections creeps the answer and they are all too fat and corn-fed lazy like hogs in a factory farm to get out of their chairs and actually do something to find an answer.
"Give it another week." "Give it some more time." Meanwhile I'm not working because my ex never paid taxes the local court ordered him to pay and the state of ill levy on my wages because of that is still in effect. I have no bank account because the state has seized my bank account - due to the inability of the court to make my ex pay back taxes as a judge ordered him to do.
"Call back later this week," Janie, and Jon and Sue tell me. Then they turn back to watching Oprah or reading People magazine. Time for another corn-dog and Pepsi break.....
Here's my situation to compare, again, the IRS and the Dept of Revenue with the state of ill (Illinois - phonetically "ill-annoy") with the IRS: I go to the closing of the luxury vacation home that has multiple liens on it. Title company issues checks that day to pay off IRS and the state of ill. Two days later, talk to the IRS agent, who has the check in his hand.
Cut to two WEEKS later, and the idiots in Springfield who, from the start of my adventure with them, project themselves as a collection of inbred rednecks with attitude, still have no idea where the check is or if it has been deposited or if it has even arrived!
No computer can give any of these bottom-of-the-barrel collections creeps the answer and they are all too fat and corn-fed lazy like hogs in a factory farm to get out of their chairs and actually do something to find an answer.
"Give it another week." "Give it some more time." Meanwhile I'm not working because my ex never paid taxes the local court ordered him to pay and the state of ill levy on my wages because of that is still in effect. I have no bank account because the state has seized my bank account - due to the inability of the court to make my ex pay back taxes as a judge ordered him to do.
"Call back later this week," Janie, and Jon and Sue tell me. Then they turn back to watching Oprah or reading People magazine. Time for another corn-dog and Pepsi break.....
Monday, April 28, 2008
State of ill just can't get it together
Ok, it's been a week since the closing and still, the state of ill can't locate the check the title company issued and overnighted to them. I called the title company in Michigan, and after checking again with my ever-alert and on it agent "Janie", the check was sent to the correct PO Box in Springfield.
"Give it another week," says Janie. Checked with the lien department at the state too - they don't even have the case yet, I'm told.
Aptly named, the state of ill. And to believe I must pay income tax for the privaledge of living here....If it weren't for my kids....
"Give it another week," says Janie. Checked with the lien department at the state too - they don't even have the case yet, I'm told.
Aptly named, the state of ill. And to believe I must pay income tax for the privaledge of living here....If it weren't for my kids....
Thursday, April 24, 2008
It's tentatively over - no tax court
We went to closing Monday - and a check was cut for the IRS: $228,332. For the state of ill almost $9,000. (state of ill = Illinois; this state does put me in an 'ill' state of mind when I think of "Janie" the brainless zombie I must deal with but that's another whole blog entry, or two). To think when the tax bill started it was around $140,000. Ex hubby cost not only himself and me but our son a nice chuck of money. Would have been useful in this lousy economy. College fund would have been great for our son, who's such a bright kid.
Did a little research on tax court but would be a moot point to go now to try to wrangle innocent spouse out of them.
Called the agent, the fourth one I've had during these past six years, and yes, he's received the check. He said he'll fax a release of the lien. Of course will check up on that.
And so it goes. It behooves the IRS to wait....do nothing to end things and settle the debt. Interest and penalties compounding daily....that phrase would haunt me at various times of the day and night. Compounding daily - to the tune of $100,000.
And of course, the innocent spouse has no recourse. More on this later...
Did a little research on tax court but would be a moot point to go now to try to wrangle innocent spouse out of them.
Called the agent, the fourth one I've had during these past six years, and yes, he's received the check. He said he'll fax a release of the lien. Of course will check up on that.
And so it goes. It behooves the IRS to wait....do nothing to end things and settle the debt. Interest and penalties compounding daily....that phrase would haunt me at various times of the day and night. Compounding daily - to the tune of $100,000.
And of course, the innocent spouse has no recourse. More on this later...
Saturday, April 12, 2008
An agent who is ..... nice?
I've been dealing quite a bit with Mr. G, the current agent on my case. He's been the fourth I've had the privelege of experiencing firsthand. And the word that comes to mind when dealing with him: nice. Really. Not a joke. If any of the higher-ups in the IRS read this, I'm sure if they identify him, he's in danger of losing his job.
Chronolgy of agents: Ms. E C: tacky, untrustworthy, flippant.
Mr. R S - idiot, unavailable
Ms SD J - snippy, unavailable, cryptic
Ms E (supervisor) - imperious, quick temper
and now, nice and normal Mr G
We're at the point where the luxury vacation home may be sold. There is a closing date. The IRS and the State of Ill may in deed be paid off.....
All events hanging in abeyance.... the ex is passively aggressively trying to run it off the track. Yet, everyone is lining up on the same side of the feeding trough as me: IRS, state of ill, realtor, title co, three attorneys. And there, on the other side of the barn, pissed off and indignant, is my ex who can't understand how the IRS tab alone is now over $228,000.
On it goes.....
Chronolgy of agents: Ms. E C: tacky, untrustworthy, flippant.
Mr. R S - idiot, unavailable
Ms SD J - snippy, unavailable, cryptic
Ms E (supervisor) - imperious, quick temper
and now, nice and normal Mr G
We're at the point where the luxury vacation home may be sold. There is a closing date. The IRS and the State of Ill may in deed be paid off.....
All events hanging in abeyance.... the ex is passively aggressively trying to run it off the track. Yet, everyone is lining up on the same side of the feeding trough as me: IRS, state of ill, realtor, title co, three attorneys. And there, on the other side of the barn, pissed off and indignant, is my ex who can't understand how the IRS tab alone is now over $228,000.
On it goes.....
Thursday, February 28, 2008
"just 15 percent"
Many people said to me, “It’s just 15 percent” implying that I should continue to work and pay unfair taxes I was not responsible for incurring, and not responsible for paying, according to a US county court.
It’s true. Not much. The lazy state of ill (Illinois) can cream off fifteen percent of my gross (I made a little over eighteen grand last year) and it wouldn’t be that much. But eventually the feds will be in for 25 percent too.
And as a pay per visit nurse, making $40 for a follow-up visit, which is the bulk of what I do, I’m not being paid for drive time. If the visit takes two hours due to tedious multiple dressing changes or lots of phone time talking to doctors offices about their screwed up prescriptions, or new problems or whatever, that’s also diminishing the hourly rate. Add onto that charting time, and often I make around $10 and hour. I don’t make a lot. And the state’s picking away at me, because I’m an easy target.
The thought of schlepping out in the snow and wind, traversing the empty country miles under leaden skies, and doing it to help pay unjust taxation to the state – and eventually the IRS- was too much. In a way, it helped a lot that I wasn’t making that much money, and don’t especially love my job.
Yet, it was two entities that put the nails in the coffin of deciding to lay to rest for a while my nursing job – Julie Butterfly, she of living in a Redwood tree destined for the lumberjack’s saw for almost two years, and all those who call themselves War Tax Resistors.
More tomorrow on them.
It’s true. Not much. The lazy state of ill (Illinois) can cream off fifteen percent of my gross (I made a little over eighteen grand last year) and it wouldn’t be that much. But eventually the feds will be in for 25 percent too.
And as a pay per visit nurse, making $40 for a follow-up visit, which is the bulk of what I do, I’m not being paid for drive time. If the visit takes two hours due to tedious multiple dressing changes or lots of phone time talking to doctors offices about their screwed up prescriptions, or new problems or whatever, that’s also diminishing the hourly rate. Add onto that charting time, and often I make around $10 and hour. I don’t make a lot. And the state’s picking away at me, because I’m an easy target.
The thought of schlepping out in the snow and wind, traversing the empty country miles under leaden skies, and doing it to help pay unjust taxation to the state – and eventually the IRS- was too much. In a way, it helped a lot that I wasn’t making that much money, and don’t especially love my job.
Yet, it was two entities that put the nails in the coffin of deciding to lay to rest for a while my nursing job – Julie Butterfly, she of living in a Redwood tree destined for the lumberjack’s saw for almost two years, and all those who call themselves War Tax Resistors.
More tomorrow on them.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Protesting unfair taxes - digression from it
I’ve had to take a leave of absence from my job as a nurse at a hospital. It was a hard decision. A protest. I'm not going to pay taxes I don't owe.
Yet, protesting involves sacrificing. I have kids. It’s not just me I have to think of. Not having medical insurance, income, etc. Scary stuff. Thankfully I live with someone who can support the bulk of basic living expenses. But he doesn’t have much. And that means no pocket money for me, no being able to go to Target and buy a cute shirt for my daughter or a cool notebook for my son. It’s basic land living, it’s not Disneyland, the place of mindless consumerism, that fake place which many in the country exist in the perpetual state – kind of like a being in a coma but able to shop. Yes, I’ve been in that state, in the store, eyes scanning the stuff, the prices, my perceived needs, my internal wants, and those wants produced by society/ads/others. Registering those people I’m with, usually my kids, but then they in that state, too. BUT I am aware of all that. Does that make a difference? Hah!
Well, anyway, now I can’t even go to that state of mind if I wanted to – where you have trinkets to show after going to Target lala-land. Although, and this is a major digression, I have been able to get into that state but without buying, by just looking in a store. It’s not all stores – just this one in particular. It’s a resale clothing store, and everything is pretty cheap. Adorable stuff for my little girl. So much. So many options. Tons of great options of clothing for me – if I had some kind of alternative glamorous life with cool artistic friends and we’d hang out at cafés in Paris, discussing art and history and our work, and then trekking to some remote place to interview meaningful people with fulfilling great missions to help others. So cool. Yet immature that dream life. So totally unlike my life now. Pretty sophomoric and juvenile. But hey, don’t they say hold onto your dreams b/c without them, the joyeaux la vie is gone. I’d have to go on Paxil or Prozac or Zoloft or any of the other SSRIs I see so many of my former patients taking to keep the truth at bay because they can’t use their imaginations to keep the spark of their individuality alive in their hearts. This gig is cheaper, and no side effects.
Basically, this resale shop enables me to go on a mental vacation. That’s what is is…. An escape from all the thinking of the financial mess and how to make ends meet, and how there will be no college funds for my kids, so what a terrible parent am I. The thinking and the resulting emotional payout – it sucks. When I go into the resale shop, which I must add is posh, warm, women who work there are friendly and talk about mom stuff in a cool way, they wear cool clothes – it’s all that outwardly acceptable societal samsara that feels so good to be a part of. When I leave, it’s how I used to feel after having a really good yoga class. Refreshed and relaxed and a-ok. It lasts a while with no hangover other than the time I spent in there. I rarely buy something that isn’t on the fifty percent off rack – which makes it $2-3 at the most. It’s weird, but it works for me. Something this gets me through the day. Scary, isn’t it.
But it's one way to get through, a five plus year drawn out mess with the feds and the state of ill.
Yet, protesting involves sacrificing. I have kids. It’s not just me I have to think of. Not having medical insurance, income, etc. Scary stuff. Thankfully I live with someone who can support the bulk of basic living expenses. But he doesn’t have much. And that means no pocket money for me, no being able to go to Target and buy a cute shirt for my daughter or a cool notebook for my son. It’s basic land living, it’s not Disneyland, the place of mindless consumerism, that fake place which many in the country exist in the perpetual state – kind of like a being in a coma but able to shop. Yes, I’ve been in that state, in the store, eyes scanning the stuff, the prices, my perceived needs, my internal wants, and those wants produced by society/ads/others. Registering those people I’m with, usually my kids, but then they in that state, too. BUT I am aware of all that. Does that make a difference? Hah!
Well, anyway, now I can’t even go to that state of mind if I wanted to – where you have trinkets to show after going to Target lala-land. Although, and this is a major digression, I have been able to get into that state but without buying, by just looking in a store. It’s not all stores – just this one in particular. It’s a resale clothing store, and everything is pretty cheap. Adorable stuff for my little girl. So much. So many options. Tons of great options of clothing for me – if I had some kind of alternative glamorous life with cool artistic friends and we’d hang out at cafés in Paris, discussing art and history and our work, and then trekking to some remote place to interview meaningful people with fulfilling great missions to help others. So cool. Yet immature that dream life. So totally unlike my life now. Pretty sophomoric and juvenile. But hey, don’t they say hold onto your dreams b/c without them, the joyeaux la vie is gone. I’d have to go on Paxil or Prozac or Zoloft or any of the other SSRIs I see so many of my former patients taking to keep the truth at bay because they can’t use their imaginations to keep the spark of their individuality alive in their hearts. This gig is cheaper, and no side effects.
Basically, this resale shop enables me to go on a mental vacation. That’s what is is…. An escape from all the thinking of the financial mess and how to make ends meet, and how there will be no college funds for my kids, so what a terrible parent am I. The thinking and the resulting emotional payout – it sucks. When I go into the resale shop, which I must add is posh, warm, women who work there are friendly and talk about mom stuff in a cool way, they wear cool clothes – it’s all that outwardly acceptable societal samsara that feels so good to be a part of. When I leave, it’s how I used to feel after having a really good yoga class. Refreshed and relaxed and a-ok. It lasts a while with no hangover other than the time I spent in there. I rarely buy something that isn’t on the fifty percent off rack – which makes it $2-3 at the most. It’s weird, but it works for me. Something this gets me through the day. Scary, isn’t it.
But it's one way to get through, a five plus year drawn out mess with the feds and the state of ill.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Rarity of property seizures
Rarely does the IRS seize assets for failure to pay taxes owed. The War Tax Resistors site has a list of members who had property taken - not many through quite a few years. Apparently it costs the IRS too much money - it's too much work for them.
I was under the impression they'd take the vacation home. Somehow, somewhere in my mind, I had the idea that's how it played out. Movies, modern myths. I thought that's what they did if you didn't pay. It seems the "kinder, gentler" IRS just sits on its butt, and lets the interest and penalites accrue. "Working smarter, not harder" they are. I got to hand it to them.
Yesterday the judge ordered the second home reduced in price by $50,000. Now it's half a million. More later.....
I was under the impression they'd take the vacation home. Somehow, somewhere in my mind, I had the idea that's how it played out. Movies, modern myths. I thought that's what they did if you didn't pay. It seems the "kinder, gentler" IRS just sits on its butt, and lets the interest and penalites accrue. "Working smarter, not harder" they are. I got to hand it to them.
Yesterday the judge ordered the second home reduced in price by $50,000. Now it's half a million. More later.....
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tax protest leave of absence
Back after a hiatus of working - of trying to have a normal life. Impossible.
I was a cardiac rehab home health nurse, working with patients post open-heart bypass surgery. Then, the hospital, my employer, sends me a letter - the state of Illinois is going to start levying 15percent of my gross.
In my divorce almost a year ago,I worked out an agreement that held me not responsible for all taxes related to his business/our marriage. Doesn't matter to the state of Ill. They, like the feds, who soon will be levying 25percent of my gross, don't concern themselves with the small lives and small judges' decisions of county court. They will levy my wages because it is very easy to garnish wages from someone who works for a large company. My ex, meanwhile, has his own business. Too tough to go there.
So, to make a long story sum up: I took a three month leave of absence. First time, according to HR, to protest the state's levying of wages. And the governor of this state, as many others, complains about the shortage of nurses - hey, I'd be working if it weren't for the lame brains in Springfied, ill.
I was a cardiac rehab home health nurse, working with patients post open-heart bypass surgery. Then, the hospital, my employer, sends me a letter - the state of Illinois is going to start levying 15percent of my gross.
In my divorce almost a year ago,I worked out an agreement that held me not responsible for all taxes related to his business/our marriage. Doesn't matter to the state of Ill. They, like the feds, who soon will be levying 25percent of my gross, don't concern themselves with the small lives and small judges' decisions of county court. They will levy my wages because it is very easy to garnish wages from someone who works for a large company. My ex, meanwhile, has his own business. Too tough to go there.
So, to make a long story sum up: I took a three month leave of absence. First time, according to HR, to protest the state's levying of wages. And the governor of this state, as many others, complains about the shortage of nurses - hey, I'd be working if it weren't for the lame brains in Springfied, ill.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Vague but better than nothing....
To rest in the unknown - ah, there's the image for dealing with the IRS and remaining sane. Be prepared to lose it all, including your most deeply held childhood beliefs, and accept - nothingness.
But in the meantime, a few helpful insights from a IRS employee that actually knows something, and is willing to SHARE that info - that's right, Cheryl, of the tax advocacy office:
Going to appeals means another IRS person will get all my submitted stuff, and "one-on-one," I'll be able to "talk them through it." As opposed to what I imagine happened with the initial request based upon the agent's complete ignorance of my ex's deposition ("Oh, you mean the form he completed, yes, I reviewed that...." No, my dear, I mean the 67-page sworn deposition taken a year ago for our upcoming divorce trial.....). Clueless.
I can also request that this conference be face to face. Good chance I'd have to go to Covington Kentucky, but that would make for an interesting aspect of this story. And I think it would be very helpful too - remind this upcoming IRS person about to come into my life that there is real human being being the paperwork and the voice on the other end of the phone
But in the meantime, a few helpful insights from a IRS employee that actually knows something, and is willing to SHARE that info - that's right, Cheryl, of the tax advocacy office:
Going to appeals means another IRS person will get all my submitted stuff, and "one-on-one," I'll be able to "talk them through it." As opposed to what I imagine happened with the initial request based upon the agent's complete ignorance of my ex's deposition ("Oh, you mean the form he completed, yes, I reviewed that...." No, my dear, I mean the 67-page sworn deposition taken a year ago for our upcoming divorce trial.....). Clueless.
I can also request that this conference be face to face. Good chance I'd have to go to Covington Kentucky, but that would make for an interesting aspect of this story. And I think it would be very helpful too - remind this upcoming IRS person about to come into my life that there is real human being being the paperwork and the voice on the other end of the phone
Saturday, July 21, 2007
"eternal postponements" and little gold fishes
Last weekend I finished reading my first novel by Columbian author and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I know, should have read him earlier. So little time in this life for art, unfortunately. Maybe that's what retirement is for.
Anyway, there's a couple of lines and phrases in One Hundred Years of Solitude (I don't know how to underline yet in this blog), that reminded me so much of what this 5+ year IRS ultramarathon quest has been like.
This scene is about one of the main characters, Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who has finished a long war:
"With them he waged the sad war of daily humiliation, of entreaties and petitions, of come-back tomorrow, of any-time-now, of we're-studying-your-case-with-the-proper-attention; the ware hopelessly lost against the many yours-most-trulys.... the other war, the bloody one of twenty years, did not cause them as much damage as the corrosive war of eternal postponements."
In time it took to get divorced and get through the IRS audit, tax collection and innocent spouse circus (which isn't even over yet), I trained for and finished three marathons, took prep courses and completed an ADN and get my RN license, trained as an ICU nurse, and - had a baby.
As cheapstreet said in a message posting: "I think many people are so very afraid of doing anything wrong because they are so 'invested' in their lives. With the cars, the houses and their net worth tied up in 'currency of normalcy' that they do not even want to think of how close they are to it all falling apart. Don't want to think of how they too could be caught in the gears of the tabulating machine of the IRS..."
A currency of normalcy - my life has been anything but. My fiscal life is owned by others, or I should say in the care of others. How's that for losing your independence.
Or, as I think of it at other times, it's complete freedom.
Either way, I was one of those people afraid of doing anything wrong - so afraid I thought I'd be a tax cheat if I didn't say my ex was cheating and dragging me into it.
So, to remain and silent, and maybe complicit, or speak up and end up here. Either way, it's life I guess. How else can you put it. Trick is to not end up shut up in a little room making little gold fishes, bitter and stuck in solitude, for the rest of my life. That's what happened to Colonel Aureliano...in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Good book. I recommend it.
Anyway, there's a couple of lines and phrases in One Hundred Years of Solitude (I don't know how to underline yet in this blog), that reminded me so much of what this 5+ year IRS ultramarathon quest has been like.
This scene is about one of the main characters, Colonel Aureliano Buendia, who has finished a long war:
"With them he waged the sad war of daily humiliation, of entreaties and petitions, of come-back tomorrow, of any-time-now, of we're-studying-your-case-with-the-proper-attention; the ware hopelessly lost against the many yours-most-trulys.... the other war, the bloody one of twenty years, did not cause them as much damage as the corrosive war of eternal postponements."
In time it took to get divorced and get through the IRS audit, tax collection and innocent spouse circus (which isn't even over yet), I trained for and finished three marathons, took prep courses and completed an ADN and get my RN license, trained as an ICU nurse, and - had a baby.
As cheapstreet said in a message posting: "I think many people are so very afraid of doing anything wrong because they are so 'invested' in their lives. With the cars, the houses and their net worth tied up in 'currency of normalcy' that they do not even want to think of how close they are to it all falling apart. Don't want to think of how they too could be caught in the gears of the tabulating machine of the IRS..."
A currency of normalcy - my life has been anything but. My fiscal life is owned by others, or I should say in the care of others. How's that for losing your independence.
Or, as I think of it at other times, it's complete freedom.
Either way, I was one of those people afraid of doing anything wrong - so afraid I thought I'd be a tax cheat if I didn't say my ex was cheating and dragging me into it.
So, to remain and silent, and maybe complicit, or speak up and end up here. Either way, it's life I guess. How else can you put it. Trick is to not end up shut up in a little room making little gold fishes, bitter and stuck in solitude, for the rest of my life. That's what happened to Colonel Aureliano...in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Good book. I recommend it.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
On to appeals!
I sent my "statement of disagreement" about the "preliminary" denial of innocent spouse relief today. Was going to send it certified mail, as I'd sent every bit of correspondence previously. But then thought, why. More money to spend of this sinkhole?
I'll send a copy to the tax advocate, and she can send a copy to the good ole folks in Covington, Kentucky if somehow, they don't receive it.
Through this all, since I got in contact with her about two years ago, my tax advocate has been invaluable. The only person connected with the IRS I have any esteem for. She is amazing. For she is an IRS employee, but she is:
(I know you will all think I've been drinking when i write these words, but I haven't....)
Honest. Efficient. Responsible. Knowledgable.
I know. Shocking.
I still can't believe it. Cheryl Hamman in Springfield. I would still probably be getting very rare fowarded letters about things done three months prior if it weren't for her.
Thank you Cheryl!
I'll send a copy to the tax advocate, and she can send a copy to the good ole folks in Covington, Kentucky if somehow, they don't receive it.
Through this all, since I got in contact with her about two years ago, my tax advocate has been invaluable. The only person connected with the IRS I have any esteem for. She is amazing. For she is an IRS employee, but she is:
(I know you will all think I've been drinking when i write these words, but I haven't....)
Honest. Efficient. Responsible. Knowledgable.
I know. Shocking.
I still can't believe it. Cheryl Hamman in Springfield. I would still probably be getting very rare fowarded letters about things done three months prior if it weren't for her.
Thank you Cheryl!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
The curse/gift
In the news, leaking over to front page, beyond the financial pages where most of this stuff lives, is the fact that another big company is making up its own rules with collaborators in order to line the pockets of the bigwigs.
From Reuters newswire: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Partners of private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) may have devised a way to avoid paying tax on $3.7 billion raised largely in the firm's initial public offering last month, a regulatory filing shows.
Under the plan, laid out in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing ahead of Blackstone's IPO last month and first reported by the New York Times on Friday, investors in the newly public company are required to return certain tax benefits to Blackstone's partners.
The company expects these benefits to total $863.7 million over 15 years, the filing said.
The Times said Blackstone partners would get back about $200 million more than the $553 million they paid in tax. The paper did not explain how it arrived at those figures.
Check out "Enron: The smartest guys in the room." We watched it and couldn't believe this company stood for more than 20 years. But then, it had the backing of the Bushes, senior and junior. This country, which means the IRS, awards criminal activity when it's shaped in intricate accounting practices and some higher-ups are getting kick-backs.
Why was the Soprano's series so popular and ran for 8 years (two presidential terms, coincidentally) on HBO? Because the politics and policies of the mafia are so integrated in corporate life - (minus of coarse the physical violence and murder) that it's taken as normalcy. Collusions are insidious and de facto now.
What this means for most of us - if you're the little guy, you're the busy work. The IRS views cases like mine as fodder for their job security. The agents I deal with are not getting the kick-backs from mega deals like the Blackstone Group's or what Enron use to generate. But without those agents, the directors and managers couldn't keep our eyes turned toward the busywork - they mess with the little guys' lives so we don't have time to question, to explore and investigate.
Instead, we put our heads down and drone on in the daily busy bee work environments - in a way as the agents do in their IRS unit hives.
I was thinking maybe on some of these posts I come across too negative. A friend in Ohio said she was worried that I still have so much heartache related to my ex. My heart's been permafrosted, after all the trauma of the past year (physical and mental) so it's safe. And sometimes I wish things where finacially rosy and I could investe like normal people, have good credit again (I had excellent credit until the IRS put the lien on the luxury vacation home....). But everyone wishes otherwise.
What gives me the positive spin on this is multifold:
I'm thankful for what I have - freedom and fodder for somethings worthwhile to write about. I've wanted to be a writer since 10th grade high school. Tried and tried for years, but didn't have the material with the accompanying edge to give me the fire and passion.
So, I am thankful for my experiences with my ex - firstly because of my son, and secondly - for all this. Without him, I wouldn't have been given a front row seat to every common American's worst nightmare in government - entangling with the IRS gulag. And now I'm going to write about - and get it published. I'm not stopping til this is accomplished. I used to train for and run marathons.
Now, instead of my legs going for a prescribed number of miles, as you do in the 5-month paint-by-number type of training plan that is so popular (and works!), I'm going to push my fingers for x-number of pages every day. Not so great a benefit to my cardiovascular system. But for my psyche and long-standing-unfulfilled dream of being a published author, and for others who follow me down this path, it's wonderful - this so called curse/gift of my ex.
So, if I do seem to have heartache in some of these postings, it's literary: it's there so others know they are not alone (CS Lewis). Or to shine a light for some. Or entertain for others. Hopefully, what I will write, at a minimum, will give a glimpse of life to anyone who's wondered what an audit and years-long IRS stalmate are like.
From Reuters newswire: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Partners of private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) may have devised a way to avoid paying tax on $3.7 billion raised largely in the firm's initial public offering last month, a regulatory filing shows.
Under the plan, laid out in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing ahead of Blackstone's IPO last month and first reported by the New York Times on Friday, investors in the newly public company are required to return certain tax benefits to Blackstone's partners.
The company expects these benefits to total $863.7 million over 15 years, the filing said.
The Times said Blackstone partners would get back about $200 million more than the $553 million they paid in tax. The paper did not explain how it arrived at those figures.
Check out "Enron: The smartest guys in the room." We watched it and couldn't believe this company stood for more than 20 years. But then, it had the backing of the Bushes, senior and junior. This country, which means the IRS, awards criminal activity when it's shaped in intricate accounting practices and some higher-ups are getting kick-backs.
Why was the Soprano's series so popular and ran for 8 years (two presidential terms, coincidentally) on HBO? Because the politics and policies of the mafia are so integrated in corporate life - (minus of coarse the physical violence and murder) that it's taken as normalcy. Collusions are insidious and de facto now.
What this means for most of us - if you're the little guy, you're the busy work. The IRS views cases like mine as fodder for their job security. The agents I deal with are not getting the kick-backs from mega deals like the Blackstone Group's or what Enron use to generate. But without those agents, the directors and managers couldn't keep our eyes turned toward the busywork - they mess with the little guys' lives so we don't have time to question, to explore and investigate.
Instead, we put our heads down and drone on in the daily busy bee work environments - in a way as the agents do in their IRS unit hives.
I was thinking maybe on some of these posts I come across too negative. A friend in Ohio said she was worried that I still have so much heartache related to my ex. My heart's been permafrosted, after all the trauma of the past year (physical and mental) so it's safe. And sometimes I wish things where finacially rosy and I could investe like normal people, have good credit again (I had excellent credit until the IRS put the lien on the luxury vacation home....). But everyone wishes otherwise.
What gives me the positive spin on this is multifold:
I'm thankful for what I have - freedom and fodder for somethings worthwhile to write about. I've wanted to be a writer since 10th grade high school. Tried and tried for years, but didn't have the material with the accompanying edge to give me the fire and passion.
So, I am thankful for my experiences with my ex - firstly because of my son, and secondly - for all this. Without him, I wouldn't have been given a front row seat to every common American's worst nightmare in government - entangling with the IRS gulag. And now I'm going to write about - and get it published. I'm not stopping til this is accomplished. I used to train for and run marathons.
Now, instead of my legs going for a prescribed number of miles, as you do in the 5-month paint-by-number type of training plan that is so popular (and works!), I'm going to push my fingers for x-number of pages every day. Not so great a benefit to my cardiovascular system. But for my psyche and long-standing-unfulfilled dream of being a published author, and for others who follow me down this path, it's wonderful - this so called curse/gift of my ex.
So, if I do seem to have heartache in some of these postings, it's literary: it's there so others know they are not alone (CS Lewis). Or to shine a light for some. Or entertain for others. Hopefully, what I will write, at a minimum, will give a glimpse of life to anyone who's wondered what an audit and years-long IRS stalmate are like.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Forging ahead
I'm no so worried about the appeals process. According to the IRS form titled "Your appeal rights and how to prepare a protest... I don't need representation at my appeals conference. But then again, like I trust IRS literature! Hah.
I worry though, seriously, about tax court. There is no way I can afford a tax attorney. In late winter of 2003 I saw Ted Sinars, a tax attorney on LaSalle Street in Chicago. He was a partner in the firm. I got in to see him through a neighbor in Michigan who worked for Ernest and Young accounting in Chicago. Mr. Sinars was very kind, but basically told me I'd need $5,000 to start, and there was no guarantee of anything. He didn't charge me for that meeting. It was a different world from the attorney's offices I'd been in around Kankakee - the secretary came out to take my coat when I got there, offered me coffee or a drink while I was waiting. Beautiful waiting room with original artwork. You get the picture.
Mr. Sinars gave me the name of an enrolled accountant - a cpa who was qualified to go up against the IRS in tax court. He was in some western Chicago suburb, that I drove to in icy rain about 3 weeks later, and who charged me $250 to tell me he could represent me but he wasn't sure of the outcome. A framed cartoon, enlarged, dominated his waiting room - it was the sketch of a patient on a gurney, IV poles with fluids reading "Savings" "Business earnings" and "Kid's College Funds" going into him. A tube coming from his body and draining into a large vat with the letters IRS. The patient says: "You gotta help me doc. They're draining the life out of me!!!"
At the time I thought money wasn't equal to life. I still believe that. But now I realize the IRS can drain something more important from you - hopes for the future. I have no idea what kind of retirement I can even hope for, as I'm looking at a $210,000 tax debt, plus my attorney's fees, plus possible garnishment of wages in the future with my rinky-dink IRA valued at around $10K. How do I try to save for my kids' college educations? How do I own property, as I live in a rented house, drive a car in my parents' names - I'm living like a financial fugitive. Have been for years - and I'm still not used to it.
That's the true cost of what I've become entrapped in - by marrying and trusting the wrong person, and signing my name to tax returns two years out of a six year marriage - I've become a person without any financial solidarity. A loser - especially in this country of wealth and prosperity, where you are what you own.
I don't believe that - but sometimes I dream of moving to a simplier place - Mexico. Simple and cheap. I'm a nurse - my skills are transferrable. At this point, that's close to my current retirement plan. The Peace Corps has taken volunteers as old as 89. They give medical care and free room and board. I checked. I qualify (without inputing my age) because of my nursing skills.
I guess I can take comfort in the fact that I'll be useful - maybe.
And maybe this blog too will help other naive fools like my former self to NEVER, EVER try to be an honest American taxpayer and report what you know is fraud. You'll just sink yourself. As Shelley Davis noted in her book: whistle-blowers are persecuted.
Remember the three monkeys: hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
For me it's too late. I'm going to tell the truth. Outside of putting me in prison, I have little to lose.
I worry though, seriously, about tax court. There is no way I can afford a tax attorney. In late winter of 2003 I saw Ted Sinars, a tax attorney on LaSalle Street in Chicago. He was a partner in the firm. I got in to see him through a neighbor in Michigan who worked for Ernest and Young accounting in Chicago. Mr. Sinars was very kind, but basically told me I'd need $5,000 to start, and there was no guarantee of anything. He didn't charge me for that meeting. It was a different world from the attorney's offices I'd been in around Kankakee - the secretary came out to take my coat when I got there, offered me coffee or a drink while I was waiting. Beautiful waiting room with original artwork. You get the picture.
Mr. Sinars gave me the name of an enrolled accountant - a cpa who was qualified to go up against the IRS in tax court. He was in some western Chicago suburb, that I drove to in icy rain about 3 weeks later, and who charged me $250 to tell me he could represent me but he wasn't sure of the outcome. A framed cartoon, enlarged, dominated his waiting room - it was the sketch of a patient on a gurney, IV poles with fluids reading "Savings" "Business earnings" and "Kid's College Funds" going into him. A tube coming from his body and draining into a large vat with the letters IRS. The patient says: "You gotta help me doc. They're draining the life out of me!!!"
At the time I thought money wasn't equal to life. I still believe that. But now I realize the IRS can drain something more important from you - hopes for the future. I have no idea what kind of retirement I can even hope for, as I'm looking at a $210,000 tax debt, plus my attorney's fees, plus possible garnishment of wages in the future with my rinky-dink IRA valued at around $10K. How do I try to save for my kids' college educations? How do I own property, as I live in a rented house, drive a car in my parents' names - I'm living like a financial fugitive. Have been for years - and I'm still not used to it.
That's the true cost of what I've become entrapped in - by marrying and trusting the wrong person, and signing my name to tax returns two years out of a six year marriage - I've become a person without any financial solidarity. A loser - especially in this country of wealth and prosperity, where you are what you own.
I don't believe that - but sometimes I dream of moving to a simplier place - Mexico. Simple and cheap. I'm a nurse - my skills are transferrable. At this point, that's close to my current retirement plan. The Peace Corps has taken volunteers as old as 89. They give medical care and free room and board. I checked. I qualify (without inputing my age) because of my nursing skills.
I guess I can take comfort in the fact that I'll be useful - maybe.
And maybe this blog too will help other naive fools like my former self to NEVER, EVER try to be an honest American taxpayer and report what you know is fraud. You'll just sink yourself. As Shelley Davis noted in her book: whistle-blowers are persecuted.
Remember the three monkeys: hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
For me it's too late. I'm going to tell the truth. Outside of putting me in prison, I have little to lose.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
"Unbridled Power"
Brought up too nice - that's what my brother says about us siblings sometimes. What I know about me is that I can be too gullible, too accepting, too blind to the time-tested truths in common colloquialisms about something, someone, someplace. I don't think my parents had anything to do with it.
I always thought if you told the truth, it would set you free. Really. I know. Pathetic. Disgusting. Idiotic. Naive. I ate up that George Washington crossing the Delaware River with the freezing troops in blankets and without shoes, and beating the bullying British. I loved the colonial era, the simple majesty of our declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson's ideals and words, Thomas Payne's protests, Thoreau's Walden.... why? I have no idea.
But maybe some of us are hardwired for that - to think that the world really is a just, good place where truth and justice prevail eventually. Of course I've wised up, especially in the past five years. Wished I'd done it at age 10.
The headlines of late have proved, in a very concentrated manner, just how ludicrious that type of thinking is, just within the context of our country. What's the best way to navigate today, in terms of national sentiment? Cynicism. Scepticism. Doubt. Denial. Hope tempered with a pre-emptive stance of assumed disappointment down the pike.
A book I found that was published in 1997 by Shelley L. Davis. "Unbridled Power: Inside the Secret Culture of the IRS." I just got it from the library yesterday, so I've only read 10 pages but note this:
Davis writes: "It is the story of inept and clubby IRS executives who have forgotten what their job really is, what public service really means. It is the story of how unethical behavior thrives in the highest ranks of the IRS bureaucracy. It is the story of how the IRS runs from its past, evades its responsibilities, coddles criminals, lies to Congress, retaliates against whistle-blowers, and squanders the billions it receives in taxpayers' funds on incompetant management schemes, cushy off-site management seminars in top-notch resorts, and computer systems that don't work and cost plenty. It shrouds all these actions in a culture of secrecy that makes disclosing what goes on inside its marble halls a federal crime."
This was written by a former employee of a decade of the IRS. Before my divorce I pretty aware of newly published titles, my radar was "on" for anything about the IRS.
Makes me think I was made to miss this one, made to go down this path. Destined to sit here tonight and write this?
(Is the above statement another way to make a postive thing out of a miserable situation? That hardwired tendency toward looking to the bright side... is it just another name for survival of the psyche? Ie. Denial?)
The index of this book has nothing about Innocent Spouse. One of my goals in this blog is to explore Innocent Spouse, it's history, the facts about it and statistics of how many get is. I'd love someday, to visit that little IRS site in Covington Kentucky just reserved for the Innocent Spouse experts. Wonder what type of spouses these folks make. Innocent. What a word. By the time a human reaches the age of 15, the word innocent conjures a smirk. If I don't get it, then am I the converse..... a Guilty Spouse? Guilty of marrying the wrong person and getting trapped... that much I'll agree to. Of intending the cheat the government - never.
Now I'm going to google Shelley L. Davis' name.
I always thought if you told the truth, it would set you free. Really. I know. Pathetic. Disgusting. Idiotic. Naive. I ate up that George Washington crossing the Delaware River with the freezing troops in blankets and without shoes, and beating the bullying British. I loved the colonial era, the simple majesty of our declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson's ideals and words, Thomas Payne's protests, Thoreau's Walden.... why? I have no idea.
But maybe some of us are hardwired for that - to think that the world really is a just, good place where truth and justice prevail eventually. Of course I've wised up, especially in the past five years. Wished I'd done it at age 10.
The headlines of late have proved, in a very concentrated manner, just how ludicrious that type of thinking is, just within the context of our country. What's the best way to navigate today, in terms of national sentiment? Cynicism. Scepticism. Doubt. Denial. Hope tempered with a pre-emptive stance of assumed disappointment down the pike.
A book I found that was published in 1997 by Shelley L. Davis. "Unbridled Power: Inside the Secret Culture of the IRS." I just got it from the library yesterday, so I've only read 10 pages but note this:
Davis writes: "It is the story of inept and clubby IRS executives who have forgotten what their job really is, what public service really means. It is the story of how unethical behavior thrives in the highest ranks of the IRS bureaucracy. It is the story of how the IRS runs from its past, evades its responsibilities, coddles criminals, lies to Congress, retaliates against whistle-blowers, and squanders the billions it receives in taxpayers' funds on incompetant management schemes, cushy off-site management seminars in top-notch resorts, and computer systems that don't work and cost plenty. It shrouds all these actions in a culture of secrecy that makes disclosing what goes on inside its marble halls a federal crime."
This was written by a former employee of a decade of the IRS. Before my divorce I pretty aware of newly published titles, my radar was "on" for anything about the IRS.
Makes me think I was made to miss this one, made to go down this path. Destined to sit here tonight and write this?
(Is the above statement another way to make a postive thing out of a miserable situation? That hardwired tendency toward looking to the bright side... is it just another name for survival of the psyche? Ie. Denial?)
The index of this book has nothing about Innocent Spouse. One of my goals in this blog is to explore Innocent Spouse, it's history, the facts about it and statistics of how many get is. I'd love someday, to visit that little IRS site in Covington Kentucky just reserved for the Innocent Spouse experts. Wonder what type of spouses these folks make. Innocent. What a word. By the time a human reaches the age of 15, the word innocent conjures a smirk. If I don't get it, then am I the converse..... a Guilty Spouse? Guilty of marrying the wrong person and getting trapped... that much I'll agree to. Of intending the cheat the government - never.
Now I'm going to google Shelley L. Davis' name.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
A beautiful day off
The form the IRS gives you to file an appeal (form 12509 - Statement of Disagreement) is one page with about an inch of writing at the top ("Purpose of form.....) and then many many lines. Like all Innocent Spouse forms, there usually isn't enough room to explain your answer. It's constricting - the horizontal lines running across the page, if you turn the page 90 degrees, those lines go vertical. Well, there you have the bars of a prison, the white page they're on is endless freedom beyond them.
I'm trapped on the lines. It reminds me of "on the ropes" - the phrase my attorney once told me early in the divorce and my position in it. When my ex was hording everything - our son, both homes, everything. "You've got to take a few punches," he explained, during the five year long fight. In the third year, I began to understand the phrase, after winning a few rounds (hearing) myself.
On those lines I have to try and explain my very human situation, yet again, in inhuman language and according to accounting-like, legal definations. Hardest of all - to prove I did not know something (that's a whole blog in and of itself.....)
When I submitted my initial request in 2002, it was lost for three years. I submitted a new one in 2005 - and more than a year later got a follow up questionnaire. The documents and written answers I supplied totaled more than 100 pages.
For a change, I think on this form I'll be brief. Like most of what you do, as an honest taxpayer with the IRS, is wait and fill out formalities. This is another formality - til I have to put together the official appeal.
Or, maybe they can just turn me down outright? Who knows. Really, I doubt many people outside the Innocent Spouse division in Covington Kentucky, know. And those that do, well, let's just they require lots of money in order to get them to share their knowledge with you. More money than I have, as most honest taxpayers arent' wealthy.
But I have a day off today from computer nursing, so I think I'll mentally take the day off too from IRS work. I have two weeks left to file this form. And the longer I wait, the more time my ex has to sell the house in Michigan - although he overpriced it by $200,000 in my opinion.
What I've learned by going through all this, since I don't have counsel and each agent either doesn't inform you of anything, or gives you incorrect information, misinformation , or a mixture of both sprinkled with a pinch of truth and useful info, is attempting to get Innocent Spouse relief stops seizure action. Also filing for a CDC hearing. An offer-in-compromise. Any type of action. So, even in this not great real estate market, I think it's better to get the house sold, so hopefully everyone with liens on the house will get paid. Lord knows if the IRS gets it, they'll auction it off at just enough to pay themselves and the bank holding the mortgage. There are three attorneys before me at this feeding trough.
On a more human side of this, and there is a human side to this on my blog, as opposed to the machine of the IRS, I'm tired. I'm so tired of huge organizations and their little well-versed know-it-all cogs spouting off their limited speciality just be hear themselves pontificate and lord their power over you. It's not the IRS, it's the system really. Everywhere you look. Healthcare, banking, governments at all levels, credit card shopping, book publishing, sales, even marathons like the Chicago. Blowing huge quantitles of people through every day to extract the most amount of dollars to line the pockets of a few at the top. Trick is, I've found, it not to let their experience make you - make you're own experience out it. Twist your mind to make it interesting, challenging, fun even.
Yet the sad thing is, those know-it-all cogs in their $70,000 a year salaried jobs, judge and jury for all the rest, the gatekeepers between the upper echelons and most honest taxpayers, well, let's just say they're clueless. Just as I was. Until all the fall-out from my recent divorce and started settling in around me. And I realize now how trapped I am.
As a positive person, I realize this is a gift: Won't we all, at the end of our lives, end up trapped, in a dying body, with no way out to avoid the reality of the situation?
As the wise blogger I'm in contact with reminded me: Death and taxes - that's all that's guaranteed.
Even those those conmen and others predisposed to cheat on their taxes have to face death eventually. So, the gift: Placed in another nebulous situation, with no clear end in site, or one that may end with me being in so much debt I can never begin to dig my way out, there is ultimately the only thing left that, as to those on their deathbeds, can give me freedom. My mind. Meditation. Going to that place of peace, always available, simply by not thinking and just being.
It's a beautiful day - I'll take my baby daughter for a walk now.
I'm trapped on the lines. It reminds me of "on the ropes" - the phrase my attorney once told me early in the divorce and my position in it. When my ex was hording everything - our son, both homes, everything. "You've got to take a few punches," he explained, during the five year long fight. In the third year, I began to understand the phrase, after winning a few rounds (hearing) myself.
On those lines I have to try and explain my very human situation, yet again, in inhuman language and according to accounting-like, legal definations. Hardest of all - to prove I did not know something (that's a whole blog in and of itself.....)
When I submitted my initial request in 2002, it was lost for three years. I submitted a new one in 2005 - and more than a year later got a follow up questionnaire. The documents and written answers I supplied totaled more than 100 pages.
For a change, I think on this form I'll be brief. Like most of what you do, as an honest taxpayer with the IRS, is wait and fill out formalities. This is another formality - til I have to put together the official appeal.
Or, maybe they can just turn me down outright? Who knows. Really, I doubt many people outside the Innocent Spouse division in Covington Kentucky, know. And those that do, well, let's just they require lots of money in order to get them to share their knowledge with you. More money than I have, as most honest taxpayers arent' wealthy.
But I have a day off today from computer nursing, so I think I'll mentally take the day off too from IRS work. I have two weeks left to file this form. And the longer I wait, the more time my ex has to sell the house in Michigan - although he overpriced it by $200,000 in my opinion.
What I've learned by going through all this, since I don't have counsel and each agent either doesn't inform you of anything, or gives you incorrect information, misinformation , or a mixture of both sprinkled with a pinch of truth and useful info, is attempting to get Innocent Spouse relief stops seizure action. Also filing for a CDC hearing. An offer-in-compromise. Any type of action. So, even in this not great real estate market, I think it's better to get the house sold, so hopefully everyone with liens on the house will get paid. Lord knows if the IRS gets it, they'll auction it off at just enough to pay themselves and the bank holding the mortgage. There are three attorneys before me at this feeding trough.
On a more human side of this, and there is a human side to this on my blog, as opposed to the machine of the IRS, I'm tired. I'm so tired of huge organizations and their little well-versed know-it-all cogs spouting off their limited speciality just be hear themselves pontificate and lord their power over you. It's not the IRS, it's the system really. Everywhere you look. Healthcare, banking, governments at all levels, credit card shopping, book publishing, sales, even marathons like the Chicago. Blowing huge quantitles of people through every day to extract the most amount of dollars to line the pockets of a few at the top. Trick is, I've found, it not to let their experience make you - make you're own experience out it. Twist your mind to make it interesting, challenging, fun even.
Yet the sad thing is, those know-it-all cogs in their $70,000 a year salaried jobs, judge and jury for all the rest, the gatekeepers between the upper echelons and most honest taxpayers, well, let's just say they're clueless. Just as I was. Until all the fall-out from my recent divorce and started settling in around me. And I realize now how trapped I am.
As a positive person, I realize this is a gift: Won't we all, at the end of our lives, end up trapped, in a dying body, with no way out to avoid the reality of the situation?
As the wise blogger I'm in contact with reminded me: Death and taxes - that's all that's guaranteed.
Even those those conmen and others predisposed to cheat on their taxes have to face death eventually. So, the gift: Placed in another nebulous situation, with no clear end in site, or one that may end with me being in so much debt I can never begin to dig my way out, there is ultimately the only thing left that, as to those on their deathbeds, can give me freedom. My mind. Meditation. Going to that place of peace, always available, simply by not thinking and just being.
It's a beautiful day - I'll take my baby daughter for a walk now.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Working on an appeal
I've started writing my appeal - if it is denied, then I can go to tax court.
I've checked out attorneys and cpas that are certified to practice in tax court. Lots of money necessary to tap into these guys. It's the same old case of if you need justice in this country, you'd better be rich.
I have this fantasy of representing myself in tax court - and I just may have to. I know I could prepare well - it's just a matter (isn't it always) of time. Trying to learn a new computer system for my job, trying to be a good mom of two kids in two very different age groups with their own set of developmental issues, trying to keep up a house and keep everyone in it happy - sounds like such a traditional female whine doesn't it.....
Except for the tax court thing. Hah!
But could I really get into that.... that's the thing. Between doing this blog, imagining and working on the book of it, and the intricacies of the legal system AND tax world - fascinating stuff. Then, on top of it all, last weekend just by chance, I met an ultra-runner. He spoke about all the great places he'd been, and how he does the runs, including Badwater, which is 150+ miles.... Got me interested in running again - another thing that eats up time.
Oh well. As they say, you can sleep when you're dead! (But as I always wrongly think, does the lack of sleep hasten death? Sure. But that's thinking too much as usual).
I've checked out attorneys and cpas that are certified to practice in tax court. Lots of money necessary to tap into these guys. It's the same old case of if you need justice in this country, you'd better be rich.
I have this fantasy of representing myself in tax court - and I just may have to. I know I could prepare well - it's just a matter (isn't it always) of time. Trying to learn a new computer system for my job, trying to be a good mom of two kids in two very different age groups with their own set of developmental issues, trying to keep up a house and keep everyone in it happy - sounds like such a traditional female whine doesn't it.....
Except for the tax court thing. Hah!
But could I really get into that.... that's the thing. Between doing this blog, imagining and working on the book of it, and the intricacies of the legal system AND tax world - fascinating stuff. Then, on top of it all, last weekend just by chance, I met an ultra-runner. He spoke about all the great places he'd been, and how he does the runs, including Badwater, which is 150+ miles.... Got me interested in running again - another thing that eats up time.
Oh well. As they say, you can sleep when you're dead! (But as I always wrongly think, does the lack of sleep hasten death? Sure. But that's thinking too much as usual).
Friday, July 6, 2007
"Dear Taxpayer,......"
Yesterday I got the letter specifically telling me why I should not be entitled to Innocent Spouse relief. Here it is, as Vivian M. Fox, Operations Manager, Innocent Spouse, details it in her letter to me (Dear Taxpayer,..... - that's hysterical, the "dear" part!)
"We propose to deny relief under IRC section(s) 6015(f) because you did not show it would be unfair to hold you responsible. You did not prove, that at the time you signed the return, you had reason to believe the tax would be paid. Also, the documentation you provided does not prove economic hardship."
There you have it. In my next few posts, I'll begin to decifer the words of these statements. For example, "that at the time you signed the return..." does that mean year 2000 or 2001. Or, as the agent Ms. Harvey told me, after saying it was both returns, changed her defination of "return" to the "audit report" I signed in 2002. That report, that agent told me, by signing, only confirmed that I acknowledged the changes made to the returns.
It's smoke and mirrors. I don't believe the "contact person", basically the judge and jury on this, Ms. Harvey, even looked through the more than 100 pages of documentation I gave her, including explanation of life with my ex at that time concerning finances. Would not be "unfair" to hold me responsible. I had nothing to do with my ex's business or tax preparations, don't hold a degree in accounting or an MBA, and signed b/c for the previous five years he'd been pressuring me to - and so much more. Also, what does economic hardship have to do with anything. Anyone who knows me know I live in luxury and splendor .... Got to go for now.
"We propose to deny relief under IRC section(s) 6015(f) because you did not show it would be unfair to hold you responsible. You did not prove, that at the time you signed the return, you had reason to believe the tax would be paid. Also, the documentation you provided does not prove economic hardship."
There you have it. In my next few posts, I'll begin to decifer the words of these statements. For example, "that at the time you signed the return..." does that mean year 2000 or 2001. Or, as the agent Ms. Harvey told me, after saying it was both returns, changed her defination of "return" to the "audit report" I signed in 2002. That report, that agent told me, by signing, only confirmed that I acknowledged the changes made to the returns.
It's smoke and mirrors. I don't believe the "contact person", basically the judge and jury on this, Ms. Harvey, even looked through the more than 100 pages of documentation I gave her, including explanation of life with my ex at that time concerning finances. Would not be "unfair" to hold me responsible. I had nothing to do with my ex's business or tax preparations, don't hold a degree in accounting or an MBA, and signed b/c for the previous five years he'd been pressuring me to - and so much more. Also, what does economic hardship have to do with anything. Anyone who knows me know I live in luxury and splendor .... Got to go for now.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Waiting for action
A wise blogger told me that to wait for any large organization to make an abrupt move is to wait in vain - it's not going to happen. The behemoth of the IRS lumbers along at it's own pace because it doesn't have any incentive to do otherwise.
After the field audit report, the total debt my ex and I were held to was roughly $140,000. Now, almost five year later, it is approx. $210,000. Not only are there no forces compelling the IRS to close this case, it actually makes their return on the numerous employees "work" more profitable to let it ride with interest and penalties compounding daily.
Keep in mind there is a luxury second vacation home languishing as a joint asset that was valued at $470,00 in 2005. More than enough equity to cover the debt and then some....More on this stuff later.
In keeping with the Innocent Spouse angle, here's a cute little bon mot for you, when it comes to IRS agents being informed employees doing their jobs: I had one agent who did not know the difference between injured spouse and innocent spouse in terms of IRS law.
It's amazing. This world, where layabouts thrive and prosper. Amazing.... rewarding idiocracy and indecision.....
After the field audit report, the total debt my ex and I were held to was roughly $140,000. Now, almost five year later, it is approx. $210,000. Not only are there no forces compelling the IRS to close this case, it actually makes their return on the numerous employees "work" more profitable to let it ride with interest and penalties compounding daily.
Keep in mind there is a luxury second vacation home languishing as a joint asset that was valued at $470,00 in 2005. More than enough equity to cover the debt and then some....More on this stuff later.
In keeping with the Innocent Spouse angle, here's a cute little bon mot for you, when it comes to IRS agents being informed employees doing their jobs: I had one agent who did not know the difference between injured spouse and innocent spouse in terms of IRS law.
It's amazing. This world, where layabouts thrive and prosper. Amazing.... rewarding idiocracy and indecision.....
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