>*huge warm tight hug* Howard dear...you are not alone. You have all of us
>that will be by your side through this. You have our love and our support.
>I remember a run in with the IRS back in '96 and the threat of them taking
>half my paycheck because of my ex and I was the sole supporter of my
>daughter. I remember the tears and the arguments I had with them...because
>I was held responsible for what he owed...even though I had filed an injured
>spouse form every year that he and I were married. The important thing here
>is that they DID finally work with me and work out an arrangement but I
>fought and fought hard. You WILL get through this.
>
>I don't know how feasible this offer is - but please consider it. I can
>help you with your paperwork from afar. And, my dearest friend, it won't
>cost you a thing. If we can work out something where you can mail your
>paperwork to me, I can work on it from here and we can correspond through
>email and phone. Down the road...when you're back on your feet....you can
>buy me flowers. :-) Deal?
[Maybe there is a way, at least to reconstruct some of the records
for expense reports. Do you have a fax or fax modem, and a copier? I
probably have old ones I can send if not. One enormous help would be
to give you a list of my back expenses and get the receipts together,
calling hotels and such as necessary. Since the actual expense entry
is through a secure link on the computer, you probably wouldn't be
able to actually enter them unless I can get special authorization,
which might not be impossible. I could send letters of authorization
for you to use to the hotels and such, and, where they won't provide
it, you can tell me exactly what I need to get. For the more recent
years, the credit card stuff is mostly online and I could get you
access.
Hey...maybe we could work in a DC vacation for the bunch of you!
Hughughug
>
>Love,
>
>Cindy/Mrs. WP
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Howard C. Berkowitz"
>To:
>Sent: Friday, April 13, 2001 9:29 PM
>Subject: Tara: *sigh* 2001 0413 2107
>
>
>> Your moderator's turn to vent.
>>
>> George Orwell's 1984 missed reality, but had a hell of a lot of human
>> truths. One of the uglier truth was "Room 101," where the
>> brainwashers would confront a subject with his or her greatest fear,
>> the one for which there is no defense.
>>
>> Given my love of words and books, it seems weird that my Room 101 is
>> paper, or at least virtual paper, of the financial kind. Tax returns.
>> Expense reports. Divorce discovery.
>>
>> I thought I was getting my head above water a bit, ever so slowly. My
>> accountant did get my 1997 return together, but I had to delay
>> sending a payment for several weeks while I nagged my publisher for a
>> scheduled advance. Actually, I was going to send it in a week or two
>> ago, but things were pretty overwhelming with the broken ankle and a
>> need to function while zonked on drugs. Today, as literally I wrote
>> a check and was addressing a FedEx envelope for the IRS, certified
>> mail from my company showed up, with a notice of salary levy from the
>> IRS.
>>
>> The phone number for the collection manager with which my accountant
>> had worked turned out to be a fax, not voice. When I called the 800
>> number on the levy, I got an incredibly hostile woman who not only
>> would not put me through to the manager handling the case, but kept
>> yelling at me not to interrupt her questions...to let her dictate
>> what was said and what an acceptable answer would be. I called the
>> Philadelphia service center nunber listed on the IRS web page, and
>> got a recording that was non-working. Calling my accountant back, I
>> got an assortment of numbers for the state-level collection and
>> compromise sections, and they again turned out either to be out of
>> service. Spending 20 minutes on the phone for the IRS Virginia
>> office, I was able to get a phone number in the levy (not the
>> compromise) section, but again could find nothing but voicemail.
> >
>> Enough of the details, I suppose. It seems blacker, I'm sure, going
>> into a weekend. But the reality returns on Monday, that I am
>> overwhelmed even by filing expense reports to my employer, going back
>> over a year, and probably being owed at least $10,000.
>>
>> When things worked during my marriage with Kathleen, she handled
>> these administrative and financial matters beautifully -- as long as
>> she felt a sense of partnership. In the last few years, it became a
>> battleground.
>>
>> If I were to put it in lifestyle terms, I crave a financial domme --
>> this is an area where I don't seem to be able to exert much control,
>> or at least am in intense pain when I do so. "Pain" is one word I
>> can use, but "panic reaction" fits just as well.
>>
>> Before the levy and the potential freeze, I wouldn't have had
>> financial problems paying some sort of personal
>> assistant/bookeeper/whatever, but the problems were finding such a
>> person, and also finding someone that simply can deal with all this
>> crap without humiliating me about it. I'm now in way over my head.
>>
>> I've contacted my Employee Assistance Program, and do have a call in
>> to a counselor for emotional support. Allegedly, they also offer
>> assistance for financial problems, but that turned out to be
>> referrals to financial problems or possibly attorneys. What I need is
>> simpler, it would seem -- I wish I could find some sort of
>> "professional organizer," and, while that person chips away at the
>> chaos, find some way to buy time with the IRS.
>>
>> While it certainly won't look that way to the tax people, it's not
>> wilful avoidance, it's panic.
>>
>> Hopefully, some of my queries will get answered early in the week.
>> But it did seem a good idea to vent. No question I'm depressed, and
>> think I have every right to be. But things are getting sort of
>> overwhelming...hell...they are overwhelming.
Message Posted at:
http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=621&t=621
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