So I busted my hump and filed my tax return back in January in order to get our tax return as soon as possible. We need that money to get a new car, as the wretched red Neon (please don't laugh) has three wheels in the grave and the fourth is flat. Today, instead of getting the refund check, we get a letter saying we need to file an EIC form before they can process our return (which means another 6-8 week delay in getting the refund).
This pisses me off mightily for two reasons: 1) the "do you need to file ECI form" worksheet in the instruction manual (or whatever the hell it's called) unambiguously said "No, you don't have to file that form"; and 2) The only requested information on the form they provided was for my daughers' names, social security numbers and whether they lived with us or not. Every single bit of that info was already included on the 1040 I filed. Then the letter had the nerve to imply I could've avoided all this if I'd just used TurboTax or any of the other commercially available software. Tell you what, IRS, I'll start using those programs (which you're oh so keen on driving everyone to) once you start offering a tax credit to compensate for the cost of buying them.
In the meantime, I'm still stuck with the dying car.
Now Playing: Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here
This is why TurboTax is so handy dandy...
ReplyDeleteI feel for you. My car was pretty much falling to pieces around me, and neither of the back doors worked, so I couldn't even take the girls places.
True, except that three years ago I tried TurboTax, and it insisted on doing weird things with my return that would've cost me about $300 when all was said and done. Wasted close to four hours wrestling with it--even checked with the IRS help line to make sure I was right. Granted, it was an fluke situation where taking a deduction I was due would actually cost me money, but still. I decided I could get enough of those kinds of headaches on my own.
ReplyDeleteAnd the car situation isn't necessarily as dire as it might be. We still have the wife's minivan to drive. The downside, of course, is that it's a minivan...