MasConcepts Incorporated

I have always been a defender of the IRS, no matter how much money I have owed in my life. They have a challenging job. They don’t write the tax laws, or decide how the money gets spent. They just have the job of making sure the taxes get collected, so the government can be funded.

When I have owed them money, as long as I was in contact with them, they were always courteous and helpful. The only times they got threatening with me, it was entirely my fault.

Until today. I got a CP504, and all I could do was laugh. It’s a threat to seize our house. Actually we got 8 of them. One copy for me, one for my wife, for 4 tax years.

What’s it for? Post-petition interest, the amount that was not dischargeable because of certain rules they have… for example, if I filed the tax return late, and owed money, the post-petition interest on those taxes is not dischargeable.

To be clear, we had a Chapter 13, and we paid 100% of our debt to everyone. I’m not saying our taxes were discharged. I’m saying that interest during the 5-year play (post-petition interest) is dischargeable, under certain circumstances. Some of ours was, some wasn’t.

Knowing what I know now, I’d like to believe I would have stayed in touch with the Insolvency office (love that name) and paid off interest at least once a month, as it accrued. But maybe not, because I didn’t have to, they weren’t sending me notices, as I was making enormous Chapter 13 payments anyway (60% of my take-home pay).

This interest is not all that big, by my standards of owing the IRS. It’s a little over $7,000. I don’t mind paying it. I paid it yesterday, in fact. We went ahead and paid it because we finally decided we might as well, despite these facts:

• The IRS has not once contacted us, since the discharge
• I have reached out to THEM at least a half dozen times (since our discharge, not even 3 months ago). The insolvency office, the collections office, anybody who would listen.
• There is no amount due showing on the website, to this day
• Even these notices we received today do not have an amount due. They say to call for the amount (and I suspect that won’t work either, since I called yesterday).
• Nobody at the IRS has been able to give me a firm amount due.

So, how do I know how much to pay them? Only because there’s one little corner of their website where I can find the amounts currently owed: The Tax Compliance Report, a PDF you can request on demand.

We have done as much as could be expected by anybody, post-discharge, to be proactive about identifying and paying what is owed. Actually, I wasn’t even sure I was going to pay it all now. I wanted to at least consider a payment plan, because those are easy and the interest isn’t terrible. I just wanted to assess my options, but nobody could really talk to me about it, as long as it was in flux.

So, to the IRS: I’ve always been your defender. But today I’m a little disappointed in you… mostly laughing, only because I paid the bill yesterday. Next week, after these payments clear, I’ll go clean up the remaining interest, and I guess I’ll keep doing that, because you can’t even give me a firm payoff amount yet 🙂