What would you do?

[Seedersandleechers]

What would you do? Sent in $440.00 to the IRS april 14th for taxes I owed. I've done my own taxes for years and was quite confident in my figures. Yesterday I got a check from the IRS for $400.44 without any explanation. So, I called them today and they tell me they received a check for $400.44 on April 14th and another one for $440.00 on the 16th, and that I had mistakenly mailed them two checks. I didn't argue with her even though she was $400.44 wrong. I did not mail them two checks. What would you do? What should I do?

[JuniperLea]

1. Did you review your check register carefully to be sure?

I'd be afraid they would come back at some point and say, "Oops!" and ask for the money back. But if you send it back, they might send it again.

Maybe put it in a savings account while you figure this out?

[Seedersandleechers]

3. Absolutely not

Never sent them two checks! Yes I checked my account.

[Seedersandleechers]

4. Yes

I only sent one check. I think someone wrongly posted my check for $440.00 as $400.44, someone caught the mistake and reposted for $440.00.

[Brickbat]

2. I would make sure I hadn't sent two checks in and then call back and see if you can find out where

the second check came from. I would wait awhile to cash the check they sent you.

[Seedersandleechers]

6. They made an error.

I did not send two checks! Should I even care?

[Igel]

5. What should you do?

First, keep copies of everything.

Deposit the check. Not depositing it does you little good and would just make returning the money later more complicated. Do not spend the money. That would be foolish.

Write the IRS and tell them that you have searched and can find no record of the 4/14/2010 check, that you ask them to confirm this and that you have cashed the check but are not sure that the money is deservedly yours. Then if they say you underpaid by $400.44 and owe interest/penalties you can point out that you made a good faith effort to return the money.

Then wait. Retain copies of everything they send you. Everything. Get a copy of your $440.00 cancelled check as a reserve and put it in the file with the rest of the correspondence.

The IRS's behavior this year strikes me as strange. They process refunds and issue letters weeks later; they've lost estimated tax payments and done all sorts of weird crap. They refunded most of what I claimed and eventually sent a letter clarifying that I didn't copy some number correctly but overstated what I could claim in some other way, so that I was $0.19 or some odd number off. Meanwhile, I think I did make a rather mistake on my return and they didn't catch it.

[Seedersandleechers]

9. Thank you

for your advice as it makes perfect sense. That is what I shall do, as, I NEVER sent them two checks. They posted wrong and reposted and didn't delete.

[customerserviceguy]

14. I agree with all of the above

but my advice is to let them know this by mail, and do NOT include any kind of telephone number on the letter (You didn't give them one on the tax return, did you?)

That may get you a letter in return, and if they demand the $400 back with interest at some point, you can get out of the interest with the letter. Also, put the $400 in an interest-bearing account, and consider it safe three years after the due date, plus any extensions, for the return in question.

I used to be enrolled to practice before the IRS, but haven't kept up on training in a couple of decades, so all advice you get from me is worth every penny you paid for it.

[bemildred]

7. Mail them back the extra check with an explanation. Keep copies. nt

[Warpy]

8. Review the bank statements

and make sure the checks weren't posted. Sometimes a check gets lost or gummed up in the system and they put a photocopy through. If two checks are posted to your account, that is likely what happened and that four hundred bucks is yours.

If, however, a second check didn't post to your account, you need to contact the IRS and tell them the error is on their end. If they discover it months or years down the line and you've simply failed to report it, you could owe interest and/or penalties.

Most banks will allow you to review your past statements online if you don't have them. Review them over the entire time since you sent your taxes in.

[Seedersandleechers]

10. Check never got lost

it was cashed the day after I sent it. And, I only sent them one. No extra money was ever taken from my account, as I balance my books to the penny! Thanks for your suggestion.

[Warpy]

13. If you're sure the error is on their end, then contact them

about it. Whatever you do, don't keep the check without comment.

[Blue-Jay]

11. Spend it on hookers and blow.

[lunatica]

12. That happened to me years ago. This is what you do

Keep the check because the IRS has to catch up to its mistake. If you send it back it just confuses the issue completely. Talk to your tax preparer or to someone in HR Block. Or you can call the IRS. Get the names of everyone you talk to and their individual phone numbers if they have them so you can prove you're following their advice.

Eventually the IRS will catch up to their mistake and they'll contact you.

When it happened to me they sent me a check for what they said was an old filing. We weren't supposed to get the check so we talked to our tax lady. She gave us the advice I gave you. Eventually the IRS wrote us saying we owed them the amount of the check. We paid them.

[Seedersandleechers]

16. Thanks

Will do!

[elehhhhna]

15. They may have sent you the 400.00 "making work pay" income tax credit even if

you did not apply, and the bozo on the phone was wrong. Call back and find out. If you made money last year you got a 400.00 credit, couples both working got 800.

Google making work pay tax credit. I'll bet that's what happened, and the money's yours.

[onestepforward]

17. You may have gotten an $800 credit.

I don't know much about taxes, but my CPA filed a "Schedule M" on my return. It is called "Making work pay and government retiree credits."

My husband and I are self-employed.