Wednesday Whine: The IRS Hates Honest Good People {Flashback Alert}

{I started this post on June 5, 2013 but must have been too tired and pregnant to finish my rant... but now, on July 15, 2020, it remains relevant. So here it is, in a more finished and revised version}.

This is a family blog, not a political, religious, crafty, popular, fashionable or superior one. That being said, my family is disgruntled by the IRS {<-- this is as far as I got back in 2013} and the system(s) at large.

In 2008 (man, that was forever ago, during a different economic crisis), there was a program for new homeowners like us where you could apply for a $7,500 loan that then had to be re-paid over the next 15 years. We qualified for the loan and then started repaying it (or so we thought) via our tax returns each year. But, then, in 2013, we decided to refinance our mortgage at a lower interest rate and discovered that even though we had been indicating to the IRS that we were repaying a portion of the credit each year, the IRS believed we had purchased our home in 2009 and thus had a different kind of new homeowner incentive from the government - one that we did not need to repay. And, they had been returning our repayment to us each year with our tax refund. So, long story short, we owed the government a couple thousand dollars + interest for those years. 

While we of course would have been happy to keep the money free and clear, it would have been wrong. We bought our house in 2008. We were required to repay the credit. It took me numerous phone calls and several certified letters to clear this all up and get the IRS to take our money and update the records to reflect our status. We had to send original loan documents and closing documents to show that we had bought the house in 2008. The back and forth with the IRS was ridiculous and because it was all by mail, (rather than phone or email) it took basically forever. We could not refinance until this was cleared up. We would not have been able to obtain a new mortgage on a new house until we were current on our payments. It was ridiculous. We were trying to essentially pay our taxes and the IRS wouldn't let us just do so. It was like, WHY WOULD I LIE ABOUT THIS?! JUST TAKE MY MONEY!!! This, unfortunately, was not the first or last time that I've been confronted by a situation like this - a situation that should be easy and simple and obvious but that instead, takes me hours of my life to figure out, even though I'm not the one who has made the error. 

Another example - we are again refinancing a home mortgage (wow, we sound like serial refinancers...we're not) and the bank needed to check our credit scores. Not a problem, we know our scores are good. But, a few years ago our information was compromised when our insurance carrier was hacked. The insurance carrier offered credit protection programs and recommended that we freeze our credit scores to protect ourselves. So, we did that and didn't think twice. But now, in the midst of this refinance, I'm thinking twice. I've spent several hours on the phone and online working with the credit agencies to unfreeze our accounts. It's a process and a messy one because for some unknown reason, that no one has been able to explain or fix for me, one of the agencies simply does not recognize me. I have to speak to a live person and disclose minute details about my identity before they will even agree to talk to me further. I was the victim of a data breach and even though I took all of the steps I could to protect myself, I'm still paying the price. It's frustrating and unfair and I'm so tired of this. It's not like I don't have anything else to spend my time on - like my kids, or work, or mental health.

Last example - about a year ago, we took Archie (he's the baby, remember? now almost 5) to a pediatric dermatologist at Indiana University for treatment of a weird and persistent rash on his arm. The doctor told me the treatment was expensive and that it would probably not be covered by insurance. Not a problem - blessed to be able and happy to pay for the treatment that would help (and it did help - no more rash). I was prepared to pay what we owed that day and offered to do so, just to be done with it, but at check-out, they instead confirmed that they had our current insurance information (they did, as I had just given them our card before the appointment) and said they'd submit it to our carrier so that we would at least have the amount go towards our deductible for the year. Thereafter, we kept our eyes out for the Statement of Benefits from our insurance carrier and a bill from the doctor's office. Neither came. But guess what did come? A letter from a collection agency threatening that if we didn't pay the invoice, they'd submit the claim to the credit agencies. I. WAS. LIVID. No follow-up from the doctor's office or their accounts payable team. No mail from anyone about it. No email reminder. Nothing. And, I had tried to pay the damn bill the day of Archie's appointment. WTF. I called the office and calmly (okay, probably not calmly) explained the situation and said I wanted to pay the bill and speak to a manager. I did both. The manager said that she was looking at our account - all of the contact information they had was correct (of course it was, I had given it to them at Archie's appointment) - and that they had tried to reach us. I called BS. No, they had not because if they had tried to reach us they would have reached us. We have stable home and work addresses and emails and phone numbers. My husband attended IU medical school and worked there as a resident and fellow for YEARS - and they never had any problems reaching us then. It was all ultimately taken care of with no reports to the credit agencies, but I'm still upset by this - my heart is racing as I write this. Threatening me to take action that I had tried to take but was discouraged from (by the exact same people) does not sit well with me. 

And, I'm smart (though impatient). I have resources. I do eventually figure this stuff out and move on. But how do people with less than what I have figure it out? How do people who don't have the money or the means make it? I'm afraid they don't, and the gap grows wider - they can't access credit or pay bills even when they have the money or fix mistakes. Victims continue to be victimized. Businesses and certainly our government need to do better. If our public and private organizations and systems can put a man on the moon and have same-day shipping on cat toys, certainly we can do better for honest good people.