The Time I Owed the IRS $10,000.00!!!

OMG. So this week pretty much started out terrible!! I already had a butt-load of crap to do for school so that I wouldn't have to do too much while I was on vacation, and I had a butt-load of crap to do at work so that I could try and get everything done before I left on Friday. So, obviously I was already really stressed out. Then, Tuesday came, and I was home for lunch, ready to cram in some homework. I picked up the mail--because I hadn't in about a week and I just knew my mailbox was going to be crammed with stuff--and I get this fat envelope from the IRS. I open it, and low and behold it is a list of suggested modifications to my 2005 tax return, explaining that there were 30,000 dollars worth of income from the sale of various stocks and such, that I failed to include on my return. Because of this, they were saying that I owed them an excess of 10,000 dollars in taxes, late fees and interest. I immediately went "what the fuck?" and then broke down and cried for a good hour and a half, while I dug up all my tax stuff for 2005 and looked through it. I wasn't thinking though and assumed that the IRS was probably right and that I did something wrong on my tax return because I DID cash out a lot of my options (all of them in fact) with AOL that year due to my change in jobs. Nick woke up early to console me, which I thought was very sweet!! And then I went back to work and exchanged a series of emails with Lissa and Dad asking them to loan me the money. Both of them were like..."Livvy, the IRS is totally wrong. I *seriously* doubt you owe them that much in taxes." And I started thinking and was like "yeah...and where the hell did that 30,000 dollars go? I mean...I know I am a spend-thrift and all, but I'm not THAT bad!!! I think I'd remember 30K going down the drain!" So I pulled up old statements from ETrade (the bastards that told the IRS I made an excess of 30K off of various stock sales)--because Lissa was asking me all sorts of questions that I hadn't had time to consider since I was so down about the whole thing because it meant that I would probably NEVER be able to get out of debt...at least that is how it seemed at the time--and realized that the 1099 form they sent to the IRS only displays the gross amount of the stocks; NOT what I netted off of them. So, Dad told me that the same thing had happened to Anna a few years back and that all I had to do was send them a letter, explaining that they were options. So, later that night after I am at home, gathering all the proof I may need to send them in the letter, Nick suggests that I just give them a call and see if I couldn't fix this over the phone. And...even though I was a little weary about being stuck on the phone forever, I did it anyways, and 15 minutes later the case was closed and I had saved myself 10K! Apparently all I had to do was tell them those "stocks" I sold were OPTIONS and the IRS was like..."oops, our bad!"

So, yeah. That was the big news I had this week. But I also thought it was pretty cool how one person's help led to another person's help, etc...until I was able to solve the problem :). Thanks guys!!

Good Morning!

Every morning, when I open Roy's door to wake him up for breakfast, Bullseye comes too. He helps me wake Roy up. Go ahead and say "awwwww" 'cos it's cute and you know it.

Just In Case...

Since it appears that the bilbyfamily.blogspot.com blog is at risk of being deleted, I've gone ahead and created this one. Cheers!