afchic
12-27-2010, 23:01
It really scares me that these idiots have so much power over the rest of us.
Back in September, the hubby and I recieved a letter from the IRS stating our 2008 return was being audited, based on the deduction we made for alimony. It seems what we claimed as a deduction was not what the ex claimed as income. So we were told what paperwork to send in to substatiate our claim: Property Settlement that identifies alimony and child support amounts to be paid, cancelled checks of same, copies of the life insurance policy on the hubby in which the ex is the sole beneficiary and cancelled checks showing monthly payments. This is to ensure we weren't counting that a part of the deduction.
So the first page of the property settlement (which I highlighted for them) states Hubby pays ex $450/week alimony which comes out to $1935 per month (4.3 weeks per month) which comes out to $23,220 a year. Child support for the one remaining minor child comes to $125/week, $571/month, $6852. Child support can't be claimed as a deduction on our tax return only alimony, although child support does not need to be declared as income for the ex, alimony does.
So for the past 4 months we have been getting updates from the IRS stating they are still evaluating our case and will provide us their findings as soon as they can.
Well, that came today. You can imagine our surprise when the IRS auditor stated that only $8,400 of the $30,072 we paid in alimony and child support can be claimed as alimony. " We have allowed $8,400 of the alimony deducted claimed. However your remaining alimony deduction remains disallowed because of the $30,072 you verified paying your ex-spouse, $21,600.00 of that much first go towards child support payments that you owed with the rest going towards your alimony paymets. Any child support owed must first be paid as a requirement to claiming the alimony deduction."
So we owe approximately $3000 in back taxes as well as about $1000 in compounded interest (to include all the time it took them to come to their miraculous conclusion, which by statute was suppose to be done in 4 weeks time)
Now I am not an accountant, but I did take a few years of math in high school and college. I also understand there is this thing called "new math" they are teaching the kids now adays, so maybe that is my problem, but no matter how many times I run it through my scientific calculator it comes out the same. $1935 times 12 is $23,220 and $571 times 12 is $6852. So even to a tax novice like myself, The court orders $1935 a month in alimony and $571 a month is child support does not come out to $21,600 por year in child support and $8,400 in alimony.
I could possibly understand it if they thought the two were reversed, hell most people would, that is alot of damn alimony, but that isn't even the case. I wish to hell we were only paying $700 a month in alimony. I wonder if I can provide this documentation to DFAS and they will stop garnishing Carl's pay $1935 a month. Hell, that is an extra $1000 plus in our pockets:p
So hubby and I call the number provided by the nice people at the IRS, and get a vey nice man on the phone who pulls up our file. In that file is every piece of paper I have sent to the IRS on the subject. So over 5 minutes he sits there and sighs and grunts and groans and admits he can't understand why the auditor of our case has come to the conclusion he has come to. He also tells me they are not suppose to send out these notices at Christmas time, and someone is going to get in trouble for that. Glad they are going to get in trouble for sending us the info at the wrong time, but doubt anything will happen for not being able to do elementary school math.:mad:
So the nice man puts a note in our file stating he believes the auditor was wrong and he will have his supervisor call us to follow up.
So all of this is on top of NJ Family Court garnishing our tax return from lat year because their records are screwed up because their computer system can't comprehend that we pay alimony EARLY every month, and since we send a check once a month, and their computer only can account for weekly payments, we somehow ended up in arrears in their system, and hence the loss of out tax return.
Our lawyer was nice enough to tell us the court recongnized the problem, and we will get our tax return back in exactly 11 years, and 10 months and two weeks when we don't have to pay the last two weeks of alimony. Seems they won't force the ex to pay us back because that just wouldn't be fair to her, it wasn't her fault a mistake was made.
These are the same people that are going to be auditing all of us to ensure we are participating in Obamacare. That scares the crap out me. If I have to go through this too many more times I may have to go postal;)
Back in September, the hubby and I recieved a letter from the IRS stating our 2008 return was being audited, based on the deduction we made for alimony. It seems what we claimed as a deduction was not what the ex claimed as income. So we were told what paperwork to send in to substatiate our claim: Property Settlement that identifies alimony and child support amounts to be paid, cancelled checks of same, copies of the life insurance policy on the hubby in which the ex is the sole beneficiary and cancelled checks showing monthly payments. This is to ensure we weren't counting that a part of the deduction.
So the first page of the property settlement (which I highlighted for them) states Hubby pays ex $450/week alimony which comes out to $1935 per month (4.3 weeks per month) which comes out to $23,220 a year. Child support for the one remaining minor child comes to $125/week, $571/month, $6852. Child support can't be claimed as a deduction on our tax return only alimony, although child support does not need to be declared as income for the ex, alimony does.
So for the past 4 months we have been getting updates from the IRS stating they are still evaluating our case and will provide us their findings as soon as they can.
Well, that came today. You can imagine our surprise when the IRS auditor stated that only $8,400 of the $30,072 we paid in alimony and child support can be claimed as alimony. " We have allowed $8,400 of the alimony deducted claimed. However your remaining alimony deduction remains disallowed because of the $30,072 you verified paying your ex-spouse, $21,600.00 of that much first go towards child support payments that you owed with the rest going towards your alimony paymets. Any child support owed must first be paid as a requirement to claiming the alimony deduction."
So we owe approximately $3000 in back taxes as well as about $1000 in compounded interest (to include all the time it took them to come to their miraculous conclusion, which by statute was suppose to be done in 4 weeks time)
Now I am not an accountant, but I did take a few years of math in high school and college. I also understand there is this thing called "new math" they are teaching the kids now adays, so maybe that is my problem, but no matter how many times I run it through my scientific calculator it comes out the same. $1935 times 12 is $23,220 and $571 times 12 is $6852. So even to a tax novice like myself, The court orders $1935 a month in alimony and $571 a month is child support does not come out to $21,600 por year in child support and $8,400 in alimony.
I could possibly understand it if they thought the two were reversed, hell most people would, that is alot of damn alimony, but that isn't even the case. I wish to hell we were only paying $700 a month in alimony. I wonder if I can provide this documentation to DFAS and they will stop garnishing Carl's pay $1935 a month. Hell, that is an extra $1000 plus in our pockets:p
So hubby and I call the number provided by the nice people at the IRS, and get a vey nice man on the phone who pulls up our file. In that file is every piece of paper I have sent to the IRS on the subject. So over 5 minutes he sits there and sighs and grunts and groans and admits he can't understand why the auditor of our case has come to the conclusion he has come to. He also tells me they are not suppose to send out these notices at Christmas time, and someone is going to get in trouble for that. Glad they are going to get in trouble for sending us the info at the wrong time, but doubt anything will happen for not being able to do elementary school math.:mad:
So the nice man puts a note in our file stating he believes the auditor was wrong and he will have his supervisor call us to follow up.
So all of this is on top of NJ Family Court garnishing our tax return from lat year because their records are screwed up because their computer system can't comprehend that we pay alimony EARLY every month, and since we send a check once a month, and their computer only can account for weekly payments, we somehow ended up in arrears in their system, and hence the loss of out tax return.
Our lawyer was nice enough to tell us the court recongnized the problem, and we will get our tax return back in exactly 11 years, and 10 months and two weeks when we don't have to pay the last two weeks of alimony. Seems they won't force the ex to pay us back because that just wouldn't be fair to her, it wasn't her fault a mistake was made.
These are the same people that are going to be auditing all of us to ensure we are participating in Obamacare. That scares the crap out me. If I have to go through this too many more times I may have to go postal;)