Minnesota taxpayer gets docked 1 cent and knows why
Chuck Haga
Star Tribune
Published Sep 6 2001
Be warned: Those IRS computers are fine-tuned.
Philip Gallion, 67, a retired Honeywell engineer living in Lake Shore,Minn.,
received his federal tax rebate recently. He was expecting $600. Thecheck was
for $599.99.
"I thought maybe I had misread the stories about the refund," he said. "Maybe
there was a sliding scale. But a penny?"
A few days later, he received a four-page letter from the IRS explainingthat
his rebate had been reduced to cover interest he owed on an underpaymentof
his 2000 taxes.
Gallion called a telephone number provided in the letter.
"It was the longest recorded message I've ever listened to," he said."I ate
my whole breakfast waiting for a person to talk to."
When a person finally came on the line, she confirmed Gallion's identity,
then looked up his account records.
"She said I made a calculation error of 46 cents," he said. "She saidthey
wrote it off, but the computer can't write it off, so it generated aletter."
She wasn't laughing, Gallion said. "It seemed like she had been answering
questions like that for a while."
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/673895.html
AB
"My opinion with respect to immigration is,
that except of some useful mechanics and some particular description of men
and professions,
there is no use of encouragement."
—George Washington, 1794
