YOU ARE RIGHT ! I think its possible still to hide in plain sight and be somewhat safer. Under the radar is the watchword of the day.

The hard part is they can destroy anyone. Politicians threaten their power and they can go after them and their friends and families. I fear they are now untouchable.

We should vote to abolish the IRS's draconian powers. They should be like ANY OTHER CREDITOR that has to sue to get payment. Imagine if all creditors could just levy and take anything you owned !! Its not fair.

That took guts. Glad they left you alone.

True. Once they have you under their scrutiny, you're more likely to go through that again. Keep the papers in a fireproof safe. One that can't be lifted...

I mailed my IRS taxes on April 13 one year back during the 90s.
They sent a latter claiming I mailed late along with a lot of blather about penalties.
It scared the heck out of me. I considered paying what the Nazis demanded just to get them off my back.
What emboldened me to fight was that Congress was investigating the IRS for abuses at the time.
(Yes, once upon a time Congress actually did its job).
I had the kind of check book that had carbon copies of every check I wrote. I found the April 13 to the Treasury Department.
I made a copy of the carbon copy and sent it with an angry letter that in part stated "you need to get your act together."
I never heard from the IRS about that again.
Since then I've wondered if the IRS computer randomly selects last minute mailers and tries to shake them down with phony "you were late" claims.

Speaking of the IRS... http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts/26...

I think I know who the cat is and who the mouse is. :-)

it's like a mouse being batted around by a cat --
the cat just swats the mouse around, and the
mouse squirms and darts and gets caught and
gets bitten, just for fun . . . . and eventually,
the mouse is eaten. -- j

I like that analogy. Fight them only if necessary.

I have always supported a flat tax. I know we will probably never see anything like it because Republicans and Democrats both want the power to destroy perceived enemies. Frightening.

The IRS sometimes seems like a sick beast. If you tiptoe past it, it might sniff at you, if it can smell you at all. But if you awaken it...!

Some years back I had an interesting encounter with the IRS. I had an accountant prepare my 1040 and I sent it in for that year. I sent it in as usual and thought nothing about it. A few weeks later I got a call from one of my creditors that my check bounced. I couldn’t understand this as I had sufficient funds in that account. A call to my bank revealed that the IRS had seized (put a hold on) my account. A call to the IRS was next. I was informed by them that the seizure was because I had not attached the W2s to the 1040 and when that happens they charge the maximum. I protested that I had stapled them onto the 1040s just as I had done every year. They said ‘well they are not here now. Do you have any proof that you did that?’ ‘I have Xerox copies’ I said. ‘Fax them over,’ they said, and so I did. I called them back to see if they had gotten them and they had. They said ‘Oh, we found your originals rolling around on a cart here a little while ago.’ The following conversation went something like this:

‘Now that you know that I sent them in, please release the hold on my account.’
‘That will take one to two weeks.’
‘You mean that even though I had done nothing wrong you will hold my account for maybe 2 weeks?’
‘Yes.’
‘That’s not fair!’
‘Sir, fair has nothing to do with it. It’s the law.’

It is that last line that I will remember always.

In summary, it doesn’t matter that you did everything correctly, you can expect no help from the IRS. They won’t even call you to find out what the facts are, preferring to cause as much damage as possible first. They seized a bank account that had far more in it than taxes owed even without the W2s.

If you want to know how incredibly corrupt that criminal organization was (and likely still is), consider the following:

The IRS was proven to be a criminal organization when they were called before Congress for gross abuse back in 1997/1998. During this time person after person, business after business testified as to the illegal/criminal activities that destroyed businesses and lives. All that was accomplished was to elect a promise to be a ‘kinder, gentler IRS’ in the future. To my knowledge no IRS employee was ever punished and no person or business was compensated for the destructive activities of the IRS. Because the criminal thinking that was then in place in the IRS was not punished, it just went underground and it has surfaced again now in 2014/15. The same thing will happen this time unless a clear signal is sent that this kind of activity will not be tolerated. That signal will be the imprisonment and heavy fining of those responsible for such activities.

It is often said that ‘the IRS is the most feared agency in the US.’ This should never be the case with the government. They should fear us. But when you are guilty unless you prove your own innocence, that they can freeze everything you own and imprison you, which is how it is now, you have to fork over many dollars to prove your innocence while the government can spend whatever it wants and only needs to say you are guilty with no proof, which you must then defend with an expensive lawyer. One way to fix this is to make the government pay for all expenses if they loose the case.

The link below titled “A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting” is well worth reading and the VHS tape “IRS Horror Stories” is worth viewing as well.

IRS Horror Stories:
http://www.amazon.com/Investigative-Repo...

General Accounting Office 1998 IRS Audit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXVZMYte-...

More horror stories:
http://www.abolishirs.org/3_3.html

A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10...

I wonder what would have happened if I just paid it? It may have just gone in to the general fund.

Yeah, they're either so disorganized and wasteful that they can't keep track of it. Or they're dumb like a fox and hope you'll just pay the $204 since an hour or two of a CPA's time would cost the same.

I think it's mostly the former, disorganization. If they had a problem, though, with accidentally sending out an extra $204 to you, they'd be more likely to correct that.

I am definitely keeping it. I do want to be careful about how much I embarrass these folks. May not be so lucky the next time. And there will be a next time.

SAVE THAT LETTER, Make a Copy take it to the courthouse and RECORD IT!!!

You may find 5 years from now that they screwed up and then you will be in MAJOR hot water. Having it recorded at the courthouse for a small fee will protect your ass like putting it in a vault. Unless of course your courthouse burns down.

I would also send this to the News Media...

You might be surprised how they do follow the rules, but the translation of the rules are not what we think they are. The rules must be read with an understanding of the way that common words are completely different when taken in legal terms. They also depend upon our having given our consent (usually via social security.) I have read that consent can make invalid some protections we expect under the Bill of Rights.

They would have issued a pink slip to the agent that sent out the bill... Of course I am probably wrong because government pink slips probably cost more than 35 cents...

Vermin.

Ya, they can keep that change..

I can see how things get out of hand. Obviously no one looked at this and thought "gee, no point in mailing this". Mindless paper pushers.

I cannot believe the utter waste of time and money that generated. This whole agency needs to be abolished. It's just another form of slavery.

Since when do they follow the rules? They just see us as all guilty and sheep to be shorn.

Me too. I wouldn't want it back as a refund afterwards though... :)