IRS fails government audit

[GG]

Getting audited is such a hassle! Just ask the IRS.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office inspected the tax agency's financial statements from the 2009 fiscal year with the exacting thoroughness of, well, of an IRS auditor, and found a few billion-dollar errors.

According to the report (PDF), the IRS made a variety of accounting errors last year that "could adversely affect the reliability of its financial statements" and result in "duplicate or erroneous refunds." Among the mistakes were a "failure to record the receipt of a taxpayer's $3 million payment" and an $8 billion discrepancy between two accounting systems tracking how much money taxpayers owe. The audit also found a $5.1 billion "unexplained variance" between the total amount the agency took in last year and the amount its detailed tax files said it took in.

But what's a few billion here or there, right?

read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100630/bs_ynews/ynews_bs2966_2

[GG]

This is ironic, earlier this week we got a check from the US Treasury for $500.96. Don't know why, there was no explanation just a check.

As usual we owed additional taxes this year, so I don't know what this is for.

An accountant friend of mine gave me some numbers to call to get an explanation but so far none of the numbers to push fit my situation.

We are holding on to the check for now, don't want to cash it until we know what it is for.

Anybody have any ideas? 

[nathanm]

This is ironic, earlier this week we got a check from the US Treasury for $500.96. Don't know why, there was no explanation just a check.

Perhaps you made an arithmetic error.

[GG]

Perhaps you made an arithmetic error.

But, but we used Turbo Tax!   

[Conan71]

But, but we used Turbo Tax!   

So did Tim Geithner.

[GG]

Perhaps you made an arithmetic error.

Got an explanation from the IRS today.   We over paid our taxes by $500.   It must have been a arithmetic error.   

Oh well, we will take it to the bank now and put it back in savings.