Over the past few months it’s been tough to be positive when every which way we turn there’s some bad news at the end of the road. The latest bad news that we received is that we owe over $3,000 in taxes from 2013 and the IRS want us to pay in full by Oct 5, 2015. This is impossible for us, we don’t have $3,000 just laying around, so I will have to come to some sort of deal to make payments on the balance.
I can accept that I screwed up, I knew I had to file an amended return for 2013, but it was one of those things that got put on the back burner and eventually got forgotten about. The reason I had to file an amended return is because I received a tax document with additional income information after E-filing that needed to be added to the 1040A tax form. It’s not that I have to pay the tax, it’s the fact that it affected our refund from the 2013 tax year, $2,100 of earnings is now costing us over $3,000.
We have enough financial issues with credit cards that have to be paid down after my wife was unemployed for two months. So I don’t want to use credit cards to pay this tax, plus the fact that if I were to pay the balance on a credit card, it will cost us $60 in convenience fees through third party merchants.
Which brings me to the option of a payment agreement, this, of course costs us money on top of the $3,000, and on top of penalty interest I will have to pay a $120 fee to set up a non-direct debit agreement or $52 to setup a direct debit agreement. I will always opt for the non-direct debit agreement because I don’t trust any government agency as far as I can throw them and I like to be in control of when I pay.
My only realistic option is to fill out form 9465, explaining our situation, offering $100/mo until we receive our refund for 2015, which hopefully will cover the remainder of the balance. I was hoping to use the refund for 2015 to significantly pay down the credit card balances, but that won’t happen now as the IRS will take the refund and apply it to the tax balance before it enters my bank account.
Although I accept the taxes I owe and interest incurred, I did screw up after-all. I am still angry when billion dollar corporations can pay a negative tax rate after the subsidies and tax breaks they receive. Corporations also hide billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts, dodging hundreds of millions in taxes each and every year, yet the IRS go after people like my family who can not afford the extra outgoings.
Everyone in America should be pissed that corporations get away with so much while the little person gets hounded for what little money they have by the IRS. I guess this is what happens when federal law allows for senators and representatives to take large sums of money from interests they regulate. Then like magic, these same special interests get favorable tax rates and subsidies from the lawmakers. The rest of the world calls this corruption or bribery, here in the good ol’ USA, it’s called lobbying, it’s disgraceful.
If you are a US citizen and you are pissed off with the lack of representation for the people in Washington DC; support Bernie Sanders bid for President, Senator Sanders is the only person who has consistently fought for the middle and working classes and wants to take that fight into the White House, we have to stand up against big money and put the power back in the hands of the people of the United States.