Apparently I didn't file a withholding return for Q4 of 2013. Paid the amount in full online, they just claim not to have received the return. Strange, because I swear I can remember mailing it. Anyway, fast forward to just FIVE MONTHS later, without receiving any prior warnings, BAM - $1000 fine. Because they didn't receive a measly form. I will be fighting it of course, but in the meantime, HOO BOY...

Sounds about right..............never let logic get in the way.
 
 
Last year I paid the full amount on my tax return statement as requested and on time. Fast forward 5 months and I got a letter saying that I had underpaid my last assessment by £0.01 ( I hadn't). The letter then went on to say that as this was such a small amount, I didn't have to pay it !
 

What's that in plugins? Sounds weighty!

The funny thing is that's the FIRST thing I thought about when I read the letter...LOL

yep, i had to pay this year (1st time in years), and it knocked my upgrade plans right out of the tree.
 
basically, i paid H&R to do my taxes last year, because i had just purchased a house earlier that year, and wanted to get a good baseline for future returns done by myself...
they told me i could raise the number of deductions on my w4 so i would zero out at the end of the year...
but erroneously based their math on using my one time write off of tax-deductable donations (we gave away a huge amount of furniture and clothes when we moved into the new smaller house) and it threw the whole thing off.,
 
i went back and re-did the math after the fact, to figure out what happened, and i did, but i never should have taken H&r's numbers at face value.
 
ends up, i could have figured it out myself, more correctly, and saved myself the cost of the return last year and the tax bill this year.
oh well, live and learn.

A good accountant (i.e. not H&R) is worth their weight in gold. I'd been making the mistake of doing my payroll myself through Quickbooks. Intuit touts their payroll service as some kind of foolproof solution but it's messed me around and confused me loads of times. Thankfully I've just handed over payroll control to my accountant so nonsense like this shouldn't happen in the future.

My accountant told me that they never used to dish out such large fines so quickly before, usually it would be over a year before you got stung this bad. But she said recently they've had a ton of clients getting these ridiculous fines after just a few months. I can only assume the consequences of their reckless overspending is just starting to come home to them and they're fleecing people every which way they possibly can to balance the books.

A trusted accountant is indeed of great value. I've used the same one since 2005. In 2004 the IRS sent an investigator to my house. She requested my immediate presence at the federal regional office. I asked if I was under arrest, and she said "not today, but tomorrow is another day". Yup, got my attention right away. Went the next morning and worked out an agreement to pay what I owed (taxes on poker winnings) and penalties and interest. Won't make that mistake again. The federal government has people that don't F*** around.
 
Randy

rsp@odyssey.net
A trusted accountant is indeed of great value. I've used the same one since 2005. In 2004 the IRS sent an investigator to my house. She requested my immediate presence at the federal regional office. I asked if I was under arrest, and she said "not today, but tomorrow is another day". Yup, got my attention right away. Went the next morning and worked out an agreement to pay what I owed (taxes on poker winnings) and penalties and interest. Won't make that mistake again. The federal government has people that don't F*** around.
 
Randy

Couldn't help but get that image from Robin Hood in my head from your story...  But they have to collect quickly naturally, those bills for hookers and blow have to get paid somehow, right? 

craigb

rsp@odyssey.net
A trusted accountant is indeed of great value. I've used the same one since 2005. In 2004 the IRS sent an investigator to my house. She requested my immediate presence at the federal regional office. I asked if I was under arrest, and she said "not today, but tomorrow is another day". Yup, got my attention right away. Went the next morning and worked out an agreement to pay what I owed (taxes on poker winnings) and penalties and interest. Won't make that mistake again. The federal government has people that don't F*** around.
 
Randy

Couldn't help but get that image from Robin Hood in my head from your story...  But they have to collect quickly naturally, those bills for hookers and blow have to get paid somehow, right? 

Those are always cash transactions. Pimps and dealers aren't prone to extend credit.

So our government could learn a trick or two something, eh?