"Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein

MY BRUSH WITH DEATH

A Visit to the Local IRS Office

Several weeks ago we got a letter from the IRS saying they had received a Form 1095A indicating we'd used the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, to get health insurance in 2014. As a result we need to file a Form 8962 showing that didn't result in any excess benefit and file an amended return.

I sent the letter to the CPA who does our taxes and he couldn't make sense of it. We've never used the ACA for health insurance because we got it through the hospital where Pam worked. His only suggestion was a trip to the IRS.

I put that off for too long, but with Pam's...uhm...encouragement I went downtown this morning to the Federal Building. I'm leaving the country in four days so it seemed like a good time to dance with the devil.

I was there at 8:20, ten minutes before they open, surprised to be the only one in line. Another scared looking guy came five minutes later and we were let in right on time. The nerdy looking guy who seemed to be the receptionist asked me what I needed and I told him I had a letter neither I nor my CPA could understand. Less than 30 seconds later I was in a cubicle with a sliding door sitting across the desk from a man who looked nothing like an IRS agent. He was large - very large - wearing very casual clothes and a scruffy gray beard.

This guy isn't a conversationalist. I gave him the letter and backstory, he took the letter from me, and started reading. And re-reading. Then he did a lot of something on his computer - "enter your SS# on that keypad" - followed more keyboard work. Then came a phone conversation with someone who seemed to be part of that IRS office about my letter.

At this point, 20 minutes later, he actually spoke to me.
He had done a search and could see no reason for me to have rec'd that letter. That was his supervisor on the phone, and with my permission he'd make a copy of it so she could trace it back up the chain to find out why Frank Nolden, the Field Director in Kansas City, sent it to me.

Then he said, "If I were you I'd just ignore it."
I responded, "You'll understand if I'm hesitant to ignore anything from the IRS."
"Yeah, you're probably right." (Ya think?!)
So I'm to copy this letter and send it back to Mr. Nolden explaining that I never used the exchange, never received a 1095A, and am therefore not required to file a Form 8962.

I'm not optimistic that Mr. Nolden is going to read my letter, smack his forehead with the palm of his hand, and say, "My bad!" But Mr. Talkative closed our "conversation" by saying that unless/until they can provide some proof that we used the exchange I shouldn't worry about it.
Easy for him to say.

In other news, we ran some errands, I put up some batten in Fred that I'll paint tomorrow, and I made a small rock retaining wall using some big basalt rocks somebody brought in here and spread around the property for some reason.
After starting the day with the IRS anything else was going to be anticlimactic.