CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: 847badgerfan on October 15, 2024, 01:32:05 PM
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I promised to tell my recent story about dealing with the IRS.
Premise: I have been personally audited once, and my business audited twice, all since 2009.
The IRS scares the hell out of me.
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Story:
Back in May I received a letter in the IRS, claiming that I failed to pay my additional tax burden from 2021. I under withheld that year. My bad. That was $8500.00.
The letter said I owed $12,250 with interest and penalties.
I immediately paid it with a credit card (the IRS scares the hell out of me).
The next morning it dawned on me that I did in fact pay them in 2022, with my filing.
I called the IRS immediately and said a mistake was made in the IRS' favor and proved it with a cancelled check.
After about a half hour, the lady on the other end admitted this mistake. They applied the check to my wife's account - we filed jointly, as always, and why this was done is still without answer.
I asked for a refund on my payment, and was told it was not possible and that I would need to dispute the charge with my credit card company. That is a crock of shit, but I did it anyway.
After two months of dicking around, my credit card company told me it was a no-go.
So, now I'm pissed. I call the IRS again, sat on hold for 90 minutes, and finally got some asshole who said it was not their problem that I overpaid and that no refund would be issued. I hung up on the bitch.
The next day, I contacted Congressman Byron Donalds (R-FL) and alerted him to the problem.
3 weeks later, I had a check in the mail for my $12,250.
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Moral of the story is to not act in haste.
That and the IRS is f'ing EVIL. I wonder how many other people they have done this to.
F the IRS.
Oh, that, and Byron Donalds is awesome.
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People who don't own a business have no idea how complicated taxes are/can be. Normal W2 type stuff? Pfffft.
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We just write everything off... Hah!
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(https://i0.wp.com/gamedevbill.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/write-off-jerry.png?resize=633%2C467&ssl=1)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCP27_vquxQ
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They erroneously sent me a refund check in 2021, I did NOT cash that f ing thing. My accountant finally got them to admit the error. You know damn well had i made the deposit i would owe them interest for their foul up
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People who don't own a business have no idea how complicated taxes are/can be. Normal W2 type stuff? Pfffft.
Best to keep payroll at 1. :93:
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Best to keep payroll at 1. :93:
But, please don’t complain about somebody else being a millionaire or even billionaire if they put in the work and effort and sacrifices to get there.
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Exactly.
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But, please don’t complain about somebody else being a millionaire or even billionaire if they put in the work and effort and sacrifices to get there.
Why would I do that? From out of left field much?
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Why would I do that? From out of left field much?
Your posts sometimes imply a bit of resentment to those of here with good money in the bank.
I know I've felt it. Maybe that's why @Gigem (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1706) posted what he did.
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Your posts sometimes imply a bit of resentment to those of here with good money in the bank.
I know I've felt it. Maybe that's why @Gigem (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1706) posted what he did.
lol, ohhhh....no resentment at all. I do have a problem with those people not acknowledging their wealth and pretending they're anything but rich.
I just find it odd. I find a lot of things odd here.
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By definition, I'm wealthy.
I don't feel wealthy.
I find that odd.
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Folks have different definitions of "wealthy" or "rich" or "well-off" or whatever. There's really no point in arguing the subjective. It'd be much simpler if you attached $ figures for income and assets and went from there.
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Well, I'm not going to post those exact details here.
Any comments on my IRS story?
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https://twitter.com/jordan_stratton/status/1118141455061671939
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Well, I'm not going to post those exact details here.
Any comments on my IRS story?
Sorry, I wasn't suggesting you should.
I'm stating that debates over how "wealthy" or "rich" someone might be, are pointless, when there's no common definition.
Regarding the IRS, they suck and your story is infuriating but not surprising. Disband the whole thing, I say!
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Well, I'm not going to post those exact details here.
Any comments on my IRS story?
check your mail
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check your mail
I thought I responded. You should share that nightmare here too.
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I just find it odd. I find a lot of things odd here.
The Obe-Wan of odd has spoken
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Sorry, I wasn't suggesting you should.
I'm stating that debates over how "wealthy" or "rich" someone might be, are pointless, when there's no common definition.
Regarding the IRS, they suck and your story is infuriating but not surprising. Disband the whole thing, I say!
I see stories on "how much you need to retire" and all that, but none of them really address how you want to live in retirement.
That's the problem.
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I thought I responded. You should share that nightmare here too.
Think I did a while back
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Your posts sometimes imply a bit of resentment to those of here with good money in the bank.
I know I've felt it. Maybe that's why @Gigem (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=1706) posted what he did.
This.
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Think I did a while back
Please repost it here. I haven’t seen it. PM if you’re more comfortable with that.
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I don't understand why the IRS requires us to send in a W-2 with our returns when filing on paper, but have no need for the W-2 if you file electronically.
For example, when my youngest daughter was in college, she worked numerous part time jobs. When it came time to file, I would do her taxes for her, trying to keep everything in order and providing the correct W-2(s) for the correct forms (Fed, State, School in Ohio). However, I would depend on my wife to mail them in for us as she goes into the office every day while I work from home.
Well, a couple of times, she mixed up the W-2s (even though I have everything paperclipped together). A couple of months later, we got a letter from the IRS stating that my taxes were in error because the W-2(s) provided didn't account for the total taxes due for the year. So I would get all of the copies out and go through and discovered that they must not have received the correct W-2. I would then have to fill out the correct forms, send the W-2 in and HOPE that they applied it correctly.
But had my daughter filed electronically, none of this would have mattered. Frustrating.
NOTE: It was not worth the cost to file electronically as her return was less than the amount of the cost.
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Well, I'm not going to post those exact details here.
Any comments on my IRS story?
yes, they are evil, but you can fight them, it's not easy. I have an accounting degree, but do not deal with taxes, but run in circles at work with our VP of Tax and holy shit how complicated they make things is amazing.
I find it hilarious your congressman was able to make that happen so fast, good thinking to call him. How did you convince his office to help you out?
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yes, they are evil, but you can fight them, it's not easy. I have an accounting degree, but do not deal with taxes, but run in circles at work with our VP of Tax and holy shit how complicated they make things is amazing.
I find it hilarious your congressman was able to make that happen so fast, good thinking to call him. How did you convince his office to help you out?
Just a simple phone call. No convincing needed. His assistant gave me a secure link to upload all of the paperwork, and poof!
Done.
I made a small donation afterwards and now I get like 2 texts per day asking for more. Heh. I don't think he needs it. He's pretty safe in this area, because he cares about his constituents.
And yes, the IRS makes it really hard to run a business.
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I used to get letters from the IRS when I was a student making about $5 K a year. I'd send them the appropriate paperwork (again) and they'd let me be. I got letters later when I was working and once I got a letter of apology from someone, a midlevel boss I expect, for the letter some underling sent me asking for me stuff.
One other time I had made a large monetary donation and they questioned it. I had lost the paperwork on another quite small donation and told them I couldn't find it. They let it all go. They were concerned about the large donation, which was legit and back up. I thought I would ose them a few bucks on the donation I couldn't back up.
These days I'm not itemizing any more for obvious reasons, that could start back up again in 2026.
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I've been through two, back-to-back IRS audits. It's not fun. And their assumption appears to be (I think they told us this explicitly) that you have done something wrong. In one instance we had a very minor adjustment (due to something our accountant had amortized incorrectly), the other one they found no problems. But both times it was invasive, targeting, and felt awful.
They also explicitly told us that it's much easier to go after lower wage earners than the truly wealthy. The rich lawyer up and make things a nightmare--so while the amount at issue with the IRS is much bigger, it's also much more costly for the IRS to pursue them. That makes for an interesting enforcement dynamic.
However, without actual tax enforcement, there would be a lot more tax cheating than there is (and there is already a decent amount). This is one of those situations where improvements are definitely needed, but how we ended up with the enforcement system we have wasn't random or ridiculous, it responsed to the ways taxpayers were avoiding their taxes.
Now, as to the tax code, it too, is the result of a lot of history and process. Our basic view of a progressive income tax isn't especially controversial (sure, there are those who advocate for a flat tax, etc., but the overall support for progressive taxation--even among the wealthy--is pretty strong). What makes our tax code difficult is that we use taxes as a way to encourage all kinds of behavior. At a basic level, the following are some of our fairly popularly known and popular tax decisions: we value being married and having children (reduced taxes--normally--for married, joint returns, and tax rebates--not merely write offs--for having children), we value investments differently than income (our tax code actually shows that we value investing money more than making money for directly performing services, i.e., we tax investment income less than we tax income we make from our own direct services), we value home ownership (we give a huge tax break, smaller following the Trump tax changes, for interest on home mortgages), we value saving for college and retirement (Sections 529 and 401K of the tax code), we value supporting non-profits (we provide a tax break for that), we value reinvesting profits in companies (as a general matter, you don't pay taxes on gross revenue, you pay for net revenue). Taking away these--and many other--tax breaks would cause a huge uproar. So the idea that we need a new tax code briefs well, but generally doesn't stand up to public scrutiny. Most of the complication of our tax code comes from these policy choices, and the big changes in how We the People collect revenue would come from eliminating some of these very popular tax policies.
Regardless, being on the receiving end of an IRS audit SUCKS.
Tangentially, direct services is one of the key jobs for our elected representatives. Helping us navigate a complicated federal government (or leaning on a government agency) is one of the ways--as Badge shows--that our representatives can earn their constituents' loyalty. Even in my Army days, when a constituent (in our case, Joe Snuffy) contacted their congressperson, and we received a letter of inquiry, we hopped right to addressing it (although ordinarily in our case it was explaining to Congressperson X that Joe Snuffy was a dirt bag and was appropriately disciplined as such).
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Our tax system is quite a bit more progressive than most of those in Europe. But, we do not tax wealth (aside from death). The truly wealthy have legal means to avoid all income tax if they so wish (borrowing on assets). So, they don't mind whether we change marginal income tax rates at all.
Europe tried taxing wealth, and it didn't work well, All but three countries there rescinded it.
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We hit a really rough spot in our business in 2012, and I did not take a paycheck for the entire year. Based on that, I was personally audited.
Soon after, the business was audited, because they found that I did not have taxable income.
They thought I was skimming.
No, I was not. Our business (and many others) got hammered by bad policy at the (mostly) state and federal levels. So many firms failed in that timeframe, and then to have the IRS pour salt in the wound really sucked.
F the IRS.
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A thing I noticed near us is two restaurants that do almost no business, some takeout. Both survived COVID, both started just before COVID hit. I really do wonder if they are both laundries.
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The truly wealthy have legal means to avoid all income tax if they so wish (borrowing on assets).
That's why the IRS is useful hypothetically, but in actuality the ultra wealthy know how to not pay taxes, and the ultra poor don't have to.
So ultimately it's an agency that costs billions of dollars that has to find a way how to nickel and dime slightly more billions of dollars out of the middle 80% to pay for their own existence.
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A thing I noticed near us is two restaurants that do almost no business, some takeout. Both survived COVID, both started just before COVID hit. I really do wonder if they are both laundries.
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTHFoT9VjoT5evipCZTycu5kn_7py2rso3Efg&s)
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By definition, I'm wealthy.
I don't feel wealthy.
I find that odd.
Perhaps the takeaway is that wealth feels like a subtle form of security than actually feeling like you have abundance.
There are always a more expenses and always spaces where you’re loathe to spent, regardless of income.
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We hit a really rough spot in our business in 2012, and I did not take a paycheck for the entire year. Based on that, I was personally audited.
Soon after, the business was audited, because they found that I did not have taxable income.
They thought I was skimming.
No, I was not. Our business (and many others) got hammered by bad policy at the (mostly) state and federal levels. So many firms failed in that timeframe, and then to have the IRS pour salt in the wound really sucked.
F the IRS.
I hate to say it, but that does feel like a red flag or sorts. Unfortunate it happened to you.
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To me, "Comfortable" means not having to worry about bills. In part, that means not over spending on stuff of course. In part, it means if your car needs repairs, you can pay for it without having to borrow. Once one starts borrowing, it can get "expensive", which is a reason poorer folks stay poorer. It's not always that they borrowed to go on vacation, it can be something unexpected.
My wife and I are careful about spending, probably too much so at times. I have to jerk myself a bit at times to spend on a thing we'd enjoy, usually travel.
I've been "poor", and I didn't like it.
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I hate to say it, but that does feel like a red flag or sorts. Unfortunate it happened to you.
All my employees literally make more money than I do as the owner. Because I'm still in start-up mode, I take home no pay. I'm basically paying to own a business right now.
Think about that next time somebody starts piping up about "greedy" business owners.
The hope is that someday, soon!..?...I can finally start seeing some payback.
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We're comfortable. We have good investments, her good pension, my good income, her Social, my buyout.
We keep 6 months of bills in the checkbook at all times. That's my comfort zone.
The rest goes to disposable or investments.
I'd like to start travelling more again, honestly.
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All my employees literally make more money than I do as the owner. Because I'm still in start-up mode, I take home no pay. I'm basically paying to own a business right now.
Think about that next time somebody starts piping up about "greedy" business owners.
The hope is that someday, soon!..?...I can finally start seeing some payback.
I told you it wasn't going to be easy, and yes, when money is short the owner(s) is the first to not be paid. Because we're greedy.
:72:
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The problem is the narrative of business owners is Silicon Valley types, who have an idea, that doesn't make money, and then get bought out in a bidding war of people either trying to snuff out a potential competitor, or fear they aren't the ones who bought low.
I'm terrified of setting up my own firm, and (fortunately?) the energy work I do doesn't lend itself to getting clients anyway. But my wife always asks me why I don't. I keep telling her if the complaint is I work too much, well then that's a great way to work just as much, for less money, and WAY less certainty, while we are still trying to figure out college or career training for 3 kids
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To me, "Comfortable" means not having to worry about bills. In part, that means not over spending on stuff of course. In part, it means if your car needs repairs, you can pay for it without having to borrow. Once one starts borrowing, it can get "expensive", which is a reason poorer folks stay poorer. It's not always that they borrowed to go on vacation, it can be something unexpected.
My wife and I are careful about spending, probably too much so at times. I have to jerk myself a bit at times to spend on a thing we'd enjoy, usually travel.
I've been "poor", and I didn't like it.
I remember the first time that I had a busted tire and I was stressing considerably more at the inconvenience and about the cost. Real moment of self learning.
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The problem is the narrative of business owners is Silicon Valley types, who have an idea, that doesn't make money, and then get bought out in a bidding war of people either trying to snuff out a potential competitor, or fear they aren't the ones who bought low.
I'm terrified of setting up my own firm, and (fortunately?) the energy work I do doesn't lend itself to getting clients anyway. But my wife always asks me why I don't. I keep telling her if the complaint is I work too much, well then that's a great way to work just as much, for less money, and WAY less certainty, while we are still trying to figure out college or career training for 3 kids
My kids are almost grown. Oldest is getting his degree in May, the youngest is about to enter college (or trade school, he flips back and forth). But either way, that's taken care of. I'm entering my 21st year in the corporate world, just shy of 50 (2025). So right now, I have other means to live while I build the business. But either way, it has been very tough.
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All my employees literally make more money than I do as the owner. Because I'm still in start-up mode, I take home no pay. I'm basically paying to own a business right now.
Think about that next time somebody starts piping up about "greedy" business owners.
The hope is that someday, soon!..?...I can finally start seeing some payback.
So you’re able to live on no income? That’s impressive when it comes to your current assets and reserves.
I recall one moment when I brought up civil asset forfeiture, and people didn’t really crack on it, but said having a lot of cash was a bad sign. While that practice is reprehensible, I’m not the most surprised that a closer eye is sometimes taken to people running businesses while not “earning” money.
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So you’re able to live on no income? That’s impressive when it comes to your current assets and reserves.
I recall one moment when I brought up civil asset forfeiture, and people didn’t really crack on it, but said having a lot of cash was a bad sign. While that practice is reprehensible, I’m not the most surprised that a closer eye is sometimes taken to people running businesses while not “earning” money.
My business is my "side gig". I work for a corporate conglomerate. I pay income taxes and get a W2.
I put side gig in parenthesis because I probably put in around 40 hours total a week (sometimes more).
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My kids are almost grown. Oldest is getting his degree in May, the youngest is about to enter college (or trade school, he flips back and forth). But either way, that's taken care of. I'm entering my 21st year in the corporate world, just shy of 50 (2025). So right now, I have other means to live while I build the business. But either way, it has been very tough.
My dad timed his well. He lost the job with the company he had worked for for 20+ years in the 2008 crash. Then he did some independent consulting, and launched in 2011. He was lucky that he was sort of planning on doing it anyway, albeit in 2011, once all 4 kids were out of college. Although it was 2 years earlier, starting a company in 2009 had a ton of benefits
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A thing I noticed near us is two restaurants that do almost no business, some takeout. Both survived COVID, both started just before COVID hit. I really do wonder if they are both laundries.
I often see places that honestly cannot stay afloat through normal means, but there they sit. Functioning in high-cost areas with no obvious dollars coming in.
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Folks have different definitions of "wealthy" or "rich" or "well-off" or whatever. There's really no point in arguing the subjective. It'd be much simpler if you attached $ figures for income and assets and went from there.
If there's no point in arguing the subjective, then a vast majority of human interaction should stop.
Just with what is shared here on the board, I've simply noted how well-off/wealthy/rich many here are, and I'm given nothing but guffaws and grunts about just being comfortable.
It's okay to be wealthy. On whatever the fuck measuring stick you like. But pretending you're not is weird and unnecessary. Pushing back against it just creates some sort of alternate reality. I don't think many people here realize how poor 1/3 of the country is. And a story about how you had to rough it for 4 years back in 1973 doesn't contribute anything to the fact that you're out of touch. There's honestly nothing wrong with being unfamiliar with the impoverished populations.
Just don't create an alternative reality.
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most live in their own alternative reality
regardless if moneyless or a billionaire
regarding $$$
it's difficult not to
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most live in their own alternative reality
regardless if moneyless or a billionaire
regarding $$$
it's difficult not to
Yes, we all live in bubbles of varying size and scope. That's fair. But let's all acknowledge that and not automatically deny one's own financial successes.
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All we want is
Less to do
More time to do it in and
More money for not getting it done
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We had a "poll" here a while back and the middle point was that after about $5 million in net assets, a person could be considered "wealthy". It's a qualitative term. If someone says they are not, in their mind, they are not (unless they are lying of course). I might say, for example, we're all wealthy as compared with folks even in Europe, which is likely true for the most part. Someone else might opine it takes an extreme level of wealth just to avoid being homeless here, which to me, would seem ... obscure.
The "truly wealthy", e.g., billionaires and those near that level, can easily avoid income taxes if they choose, legally. My own definition of "wealthy" is "someone who doesn't need any income". That's intentionally glib.
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I don't "need" any income to live
but, my standard of living would suffer some
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Yeah, I should say "need" = maintaining desired level of living. If I have a billion dollars invested in say Berkshire Hathaway stock, I can readily borrow $30 million a year for my life style, and the stock is likely to appreciate more than 3% year over year, so I'm not even reducing my wealth. The story with that mutual fund is indeed remarkable.
Most mutual funds out there are almost scams.
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How many more IRS agents has the Biden-Harris administration added or seeks to hire? 87,000? Mind boggling.
https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/605107/new-irs-agents-and-the-inflation-reduction-act (https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/605107/new-irs-agents-and-the-inflation-reduction-act)
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Wealthy vs not is as much a state of mind versus anything else. I know people who are literally multi millionaires who you would think they are broke. They drive old 20 year old cars, never go on vacation, never eat out, never buy anything extravagant and still work really hard as in manual labor. They always pay for everything with cash and exact change in the store because the clerk might not give them the exact change back. They’re worried they might get short changed maybe $.01 or gasp- a nickel.
I also know people who are broke that spend money like crazy, eat out everyday, always drive the newest and best vehicles, and live in big fancy houses. As a service business owner you quickly come to realize to not judge a book by its cover. The person in the shack will pay you in cash, the high roller in the mansion may not pay you at all.
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In context, the number working at the IRS has not kept pace with the number of filers each year over time.
A better approach IMHO would be to greatly simplify the tax code, but that won't happen.
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The old saying is something like "You don't know what a person earns, but you can guess at what he spends."
I had neighbors who also spent like crazy on visible stuff, and others who were pretty quiet about it, driving older cars etc. (like me).
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Wealthy vs not is as much a state of mind versus anything else. I know people who are literally multi millionaires who you would think they are broke. They drive old 20 year old cars, never go on vacation, never eat out, never buy anything extravagant and still work really hard as in manual labor. They always pay for everything with cash and exact change in the store because the clerk might not give them the exact change back. They’re worried they might get short changed maybe $.01 or gasp- a nickel.
I also know people who are broke that spend money like crazy, eat out everyday, always drive the newest and best vehicles, and live in big fancy houses. As a service business owner you quickly come to realize to not judge a book by its cover. The person in the shack will pay you in cash, the high roller in the mansion may not pay you at all.
Very true, and I think there can even be a split in the first group.
A person might be that way because they are desperately afraid of ending up with nothing (despite the theoretical security, they should have amassed). And there are also people who act that way because they think “I am in good financial shape because I did that.”
(I am a little wired like that last one, and it requires some intentionality to not be over frugal)
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My wife thinks I'm too frugal.
I just tell her that our fixed incomes are worth 20-25 percent less than they were 4 years ago.
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My wife and I have both been through periods of struggling so we're pretty well matched. I usually have to encourage myself to spend money on a thing, my inclination is to go without.
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A better approach IMHO would be to greatly simplify the tax code, but that won't happen.
Dave Chapelle had a pretty good bit on that a couple years back.
The essence was that it will never happen because the elected officials and their donors, on both sides of the aisle benefit from it as is
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Yes, we all live in bubbles of varying size and scope. That's fair. But let's all acknowledge that and not automatically deny one's own financial successes.
Nobody on this board owe's you,me or anyone else an accounting of their success or lack there of.If you're fishing for it that's on you,if they anounce it then have at it.
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Dave Chapelle had a pretty good bit on that a couple years back.
The essence was that it will never happen because the elected officials and their donors, on both sides of the aisle benefit from it as is
I love that about Chappelle brutally honest and he confirms what you just said in one minute
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PQbq1rBwuPU?feature=share
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Nobody on this board owe's you,me or anyone else an accounting of their success or lack there of.If you're fishing for it that's on you,if they anounce it then have at it.
He wants rich people to just go ahead and admit they're rich, even though there's no accepted definition of what rich is, so how would anyone know?
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I'm better off than most folks my age. I also probably donate more than most folks my age. I don't expect any credit for that from anyone.
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ok, I admit it.
I'm a rich dirtfarmer
so what?
now what?
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When I was poor, I didn't look at wealthy folks and somehow think they were at fault for my poorness. I had ambition to become wealthier, if not wealthy. I did stuff to enable that, made some hard choices, stuck with a job I mostly didn't like, etc. I wasn't born wealthy, we were very middle class, my parents were school teachers for years, my sister was a school teacher for years, I even "taught" as a teaching assistant for years.
Anyway ...
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We used to donate more.
I have a friend named Rich. So he is rich.
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ok, I admit it.
I'm a rich dirtfarmer
so what?
now what?
Oh, we know.
(https://i.imgur.com/1DlkCfo.jpeg)
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ok, I admit it.I'm a rich dirtfarmer
so what?now what?
Ask Rodney
https://youtu.be/Q0X-oA2l-1E?t=9
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I've been through two, back-to-back IRS audits. It's not fun. And their assumption appears to be (I think they told us this explicitly) that you have done something wrong. In one instance we had a very minor adjustment (due to something our accountant had amortized incorrectly), the other one they found no problems. But both times it was invasive, targeting, and felt awful.
I truly appreciate you guys posting. It was so ironic to see this topic. I've been in an IRS audit for 7 months. It's been a complete and utter nightmare. At this point, it feels like harassment to me and my family. The reason for their audit is because from 2021 to 2022 my income dropped too much that I must have been hiding income in my business. It didn't matter that I had medical records starting in July showing i completely stopped working and needed extensive brain surgery and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that if someone isn't really running a business, it isn't really going to make similar money compared to years past.
Up to this point, I have not gotten legal counsel because we have nothing to hide and did not hide money, but we are getting close. Their most recent request was that a business event that I paid for, I need to go and get letters from other business that attended on their company letterhead stating they attended. An absurd request and going through the process, no matter how honest you are is embarrassing to admit on so many levels.. To add to the mess, we had our identity stolen in 2023 where our checking account was drained so we had to shut it down and open a new one and our bank has told us because of the circumstances, they no longer can get copies of canceled checks and some other information because their system only archives for 2 years.. awesome. almost like the banks do this to help the IRS.
I've already prepped my wife that we are going to have money squeezed away from us because that is their entire intention. They hired 87,000 agents to put pressure on the middle class individuals that make decent money and they're going to squeeze every dime out of us they can. There's a lot of additional details that make this even worse, but being someone in my situation that has still been trying to get past such a major health issue, while get back to running a business i didn't touch for 6 months and raise 3 young children after my wife had to keep it all together for a long 2 years has been awful. And then end result will be cutting some sort of check with absurd late fees and penalties that are completely not deserved.
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Holy crap Mario. That's terrible. Those people are EVIL.
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Oh, we know.
[img width=234.333 height=500]https://i.imgur.com/1DlkCfo.jpeg[/img]
I'm not really a farmer. I didn't write that off as a tractor
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My wife thinks I'm too frugal.
I just tell her that our fixed incomes are worth 20-25 percent less than they were 4 years ago.
Because I'm a nerd, i think it’s 18 percent.
Aren’t you too young for fixed incomes?
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I truly appreciate you guys posting. It was so ironic to see this topic. I've been in an IRS audit for 7 months. It's been a complete and utter nightmare. At this point, it feels like harassment to me and my family. The reason for their audit is because from 2021 to 2022 my income dropped too much that I must have been hiding income in my business. It didn't matter that I had medical records starting in July showing i completely stopped working and needed extensive brain surgery and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that if someone isn't really running a business, it isn't really going to make similar money compared to years past.
That sucks, they did a similar thing to us, when my wife took her second maternity leave. Ours fortunately wasn't drawn out, because there was nowhere we could have "hidden" the money. But I was perplexed as to how a fairly common occurrence like maternity leave threw them for that much of a loop. She took a shorter leave with our first, and had a ton of banked up sick days that she burned through first, plus he was born over summer vacation, so she didn't even technically start her maternity leave until he was like 4 months old. She took 13 months with our second.
We had another issue with our foster daughter, but that wasn't on them. Her birth parents had her SSN, and claimed her. First thing we did when we adopted her was change that
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Holy crap Mario. That's terrible. Those people are EVIL.
They really are man.. the part that makes me the angriest is the agent doing the audit is in training with his superior, we were his first case and he is a fellow alumnus from my high school and our school motto is "Men For Others." Let me tell you, what he's put our family through is the exact opposite of that.
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Because I'm a nerd, i think it’s 18 percent.
Aren’t you too young for fixed incomes?
I haven't given myself a raise for 4 years, because we can't afford as we have to give raises to our employees, so they don't leave us. Big firms are always after our employees, because they are well-trained and very skilled.
My wife's pension is fixed. No COLA with that.
I attempted to quantify our income reduction and came up with 20-25 percent down, based on spending increases caused by Covid and bad policies in DC.
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That sucks, they did a similar thing to us, when my wife took her second maternity leave. Ours fortunately wasn't drawn out, because there was nowhere we could have "hidden" the money. But I was perplexed as to how a fairly common occurrence like maternity leave threw them for that much of a loop. She took a shorter leave with our first, and had a ton of banked up sick days that she burned through first, plus he was born over summer vacation, so she didn't even technically start her maternity leave until he was like 4 months old. She took 13 months with our second.
We had another issue with our foster daughter, but that wasn't on them. Her birth parents had her SSN, and claimed her. First thing we did when we adopted her was change that
they look for any angle possible.. which is also why i think they've dragged mine out. Doing it for maternity leave is absurd. My business intertwines with my w2 job which makes it more complicated, but since i'm in the financial world and there are federal licenses involved, i don't mess around with anything not being above board a clear as day on the right side of the fence. Sadly, my mindset my entire life, since my father, my best friend and my grandparents were military men, that I respect my country and that I always pay my share of taxes because it's the right thing to do and part of why we have the freedoms we do.. After going through this process, my opinion on that has completely changed. I'll still do what's right, so i can never have regrets putting my head on the pillow every night, but I no longer have respect for what our government is and what the IRS is trying to accomplish.
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they look for any angle possible.. which is also why i think they've dragged mine out. Doing it for maternity leave is absurd. My business intertwines with my w2 job which makes it more complicated, but since i'm in the financial world and there are federal licenses involved, i don't mess around with anything not being above board a clear as day on the right side of the fence. Sadly, my mindset my entire life, since my father, my best friend and my grandparents were military men, that I respect my country and that I always pay my share of taxes because it's the right thing to do and part of why we have the freedoms we do.. After going through this process, my opinion on that has completely changed. I'll still do what's right, so i can never have regrets putting my head on the pillow every night, but I no longer have respect for what our government is and what the IRS is trying to accomplish.
I also think it's a fishing expedition to find the bad actors. And it's way easier to cast a wide net and make the good actors fight their way out
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I also think it's a fishing expedition to find the bad actors. And it's way easier to cast a wide net and make the good actors fight their way out
Exactly.
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I also think it's a fishing expedition to find the bad actors. And it's way easier to cast a wide net and make the good actors fight their way out
Wow.. that's perfectly said..
Look, we found a topic we can all agree on lol
We should get together and sit and talk about this in person having some chili.. that stuff that has beans in it.
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Heh.
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...and, the moment was gone...
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Wow.. that's perfectly said..
Look, we found a topic we can all agree on lol
We should get together and sit and talk about this in person having some chili.. that stuff that has beans in it.
I'll believe it when OAM agrees
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A couple pretty bad personal experiences here, I'm glad to have missed that mess. When it rains ...
These days, I do my best to keep our tax situation as simple as possible, which is not that simple. I've had some 60 page returns over the past few years.
I had to fill out a Schedule S way back when my then wife bought a business. Holy cow that was awful.
And her "records" were shall we say, a mess.
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Wow.. that's perfectly said..
Look, we found a topic we can all agree on lol
We should get together and sit and talk about this in person having some chili.. that stuff that has beans in it.
The sad thing is a lot of us agree on a lot of things, but politics has become about fighting for certain issues that actually don't impact many people. Yet everyone across the aisle has issues with certain things that get no oxygen in the national debate.
I will second badge, that your US rep actually has a ton of sway, and nobody thinks to ask them after they are elected based on their stance on abortion or trans kids or something that they have little impact on, and doesn't impact most of their constituents. But there are certain areas where they can get a ton of actual meaningful shit done
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It’s also interesting to note that I’m the personal experience of folks, when the government turns it investigative eyes on you, it at times doesn’t seem to matter if you did it.
Just a thing to keep in mind for anyone the government goes after
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I truly appreciate you guys posting. It was so ironic to see this topic. I've been in an IRS audit for 7 months. It's been a complete and utter nightmare. At this point, it feels like harassment to me and my family. The reason for their audit is because from 2021 to 2022 my income dropped too much that I must have been hiding income in my business. It didn't matter that I had medical records starting in July showing i completely stopped working and needed extensive brain surgery and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that if someone isn't really running a business, it isn't really going to make similar money compared to years past.
Up to this point, I have not gotten legal counsel because we have nothing to hide and did not hide money, but we are getting close. Their most recent request was that a business event that I paid for, I need to go and get letters from other business that attended on their company letterhead stating they attended. An absurd request and going through the process, no matter how honest you are is embarrassing to admit on so many levels.. To add to the mess, we had our identity stolen in 2023 where our checking account was drained so we had to shut it down and open a new one and our bank has told us because of the circumstances, they no longer can get copies of canceled checks and some other information because their system only archives for 2 years.. awesome. almost like the banks do this to help the IRS.
I've already prepped my wife that we are going to have money squeezed away from us because that is their entire intention. They hired 87,000 agents to put pressure on the middle class individuals that make decent money and they're going to squeeze every dime out of us they can. There's a lot of additional details that make this even worse, but being someone in my situation that has still been trying to get past such a major health issue, while get back to running a business i didn't touch for 6 months and raise 3 young children after my wife had to keep it all together for a long 2 years has been awful. And then end result will be cutting some sort of check with absurd late fees and penalties that are completely not deserved.
I don’t know a lot about a lot, but I know that having “nothing to hide” Is often a poor reason that people do not get representation.
Maybe the government sometimes “wants to clear things up,” but in a lot of cases, the process is a punishment, and having someone who knows the right moments to tell them to F off is usually not a bad thing.
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It’s also interesting to note that I’m the personal experience of folks, when the government turns it investigative eyes on you, it at times doesn’t seem to matter if you did it.
Just a thing to keep in mind for anyone the government goes after
I've been F'd around by the IRS enough. I would not bet on them to not mess with me again. They are 0-4 against me. They need a win. They are desperate. And they will be 0-5 if they try again.
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I reached the point a while back that I would not speak to the FBI without a lawyer present. Having nothing to hide and trying to help can get one into trouble.
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Never had the FBI knock on my door. Maybe that's next. Investigate me on how I'm 4-0 against one their alphabet agency buddies?
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I've been listed as a reference twice on folks who applied to he FBI and they called me about it. I hope never to have any further interaction with any alphabet agency.
Back in the day, I had some with OSHA, the EPA, and the PTO, a lot with the latter.
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I reached the point a while back that I would not speak to the FBI without a lawyer present. Having nothing to hide and trying to help can get one into trouble.
I agree only with the local constable, a kid told me he knew who stole some computers/vandalized the local High School. So I told the Cops,well they go hard after the kid as he already named names and wanted him to stand up in Juvenile court and say it. Turns out I'm very good friends with the kid's uncle Scott - to this day. I let him know and he told the cops the kid gave them everything he could, so they should start twisting the punks arms for info.
Scott further told them they couldn't guarantee his nephew would not get smacked around or roughed up by fingering them publicly- it's not the hood but that's just what kids do when you're outed as a rat or at least they try rattling cages. Anyway a couple of the culprits rolled over during questioning and basically told the cops enough but then they end up getting a slap on the wrist by the court. No guarantee Scott's nephew would have gotten the same
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I had a friend who had a roommate list him as a reference for the FBI. The big Takeaway was that my friend realized he didn’t know a ton of things about his roommate, including what his roommate did for work (we were in college).
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I had to talk to the feds about a college girlfriend when she applied. Then they circled back both times she was up for a security upgrade. In 2016 I was finally like, I havent even spoken to this person in nearly a decade, and they took me off her reference list
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I've had a couple of engineering buddies who ended up at defense contractors and let me know I was on the reference list when they were being looked at for security clearances they were seeking, but I was never contacted.
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Prolly read your blog and saw you're name on home brewing sites,screw the uppity G-Men
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I reached the point a while back that I would not speak to the FBI without a lawyer present. Having nothing to hide and trying to help can get one into trouble.
So what happened? The FBI doesn't have a good rep these days. PM if uncomfortable.
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Nothing happened to me, but I read about some occasions where others ended up in trouble for trying to help.
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I had the FBI contact me when my son was getting a top secret security clearence for his job in the Air Force. It was pretty mild. I met with them a couple of times with no issues.
However, I'm still of the opinion if they or any other alphabet agencey want to talk to me about anything else, I will most likely lawyer up. It also helps having a friend as a lawyer.
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A good roll of thumb, don’t talk to cops alone.
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just don't talk to law enforcement