I.m R.eally S.tressed

26 May 2010 2 Comments

by jessiecarter in GRAVITY Experiment Tags: big girl panties, cry, gravity, IRS, molehill, mountain, stressed, tax, treadmill, worried

GRAVITY Experiment Day #42

Today’s weight:  144.5

Pounds lost / pounds to go:  6.0 / 9.0

Exercise:  30 min walking / interval training on the treadmill as previous

We got a tax notice from the IRS on Monday.  This within an hour of putting money down on a piece of property.  Don’t things always happen that way?  The envelope was really thick so I automatically panicked.  I had reason to after I opened it up.

Knowing nil about taxes, I worried all night Monday.  I worried more Tuesday after I got word from my husband that he got absolutely nowhere talking to them.  The first time he called, their computers were down and the second time they wouldn’t give him any information because I had to be the one calling.  Of course that info wasn’t given to him while he waited on hold for 15 minutes.

After waiting on hold my obligatory 15 minutes this morning, I was distraught.  In 3½ years in business, we haven’t goofed when it’s come to tax stuff.  This error was legitimate and we learned a lot to prevent the same error from happening.

It was how I was treated that was appalling.  The lady was extremely rude to me on the phone – imagine that from the IRS   From the get go, I was the enemy.  At one point, I stated while crying, “Ma’am, it is very scary to receive a tax notice from the IRS.  You are going to need to quit speaking to me with a condescending tone if we are going to accomplish anything.  If you can’t do that, then I need to talk to someone else.”

My mountain ended up being a molehill, yet again.  What a waste of my time and energy.  One of these days I’m going to actually apply this knowledge.

Lessons learned in dealing with the IRS:

1)      They are some scary dudes so avoid dealing with them if at all possible.

2)      Put your big girl panties on if forced to deal with them.

3)      If #1 and #2 don’t work, cry (evidently it’s effective at getting all penalties and fees removed)