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!!