It could happen to you too • Hacker News Board

Re: It could happen to you too

#81

Post by rdl » Thu, Feb 14, 2013, 5:52 PM UTC

SatvikBeri wrote: post #76

rdl wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found the IRS to be incredibly reasonable. I had a high tax bill due to non-realized gains (sigh...), but was able to get them to do a payment plan at low interest for a couple years. They were nothing but polite and accommodating. I also spoke with IRS CID on another matter (someone was making death threats to IRS agents, and they had mail through my anon remailer). Way saner than FBI or even USSS. (I had no in…

I had a high tax bill due to non-realized gains... Do you mind elaborating? I was under the impression that capital gains aren't taxed until they're realized, would love to hear when that's not the case.

AMT

Re: It could happen to you too

#82

Post by PotatoEngineer » Thu, Feb 14, 2013, 5:54 PM UTC

SatvikBeri wrote: post #76

rdl wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found the IRS to be incredibly reasonable. I had a high tax bill due to non-realized gains (sigh...), but was able to get them to do a payment plan at low interest for a couple years. They were nothing but polite and accommodating. I also spoke with IRS CID on another matter (someone was making death threats to IRS agents, and they had mail through my anon remailer). Way saner than FBI or even USSS. (I had no in…

I had a high tax bill due to non-realized gains... Do you mind elaborating? I was under the impression that capital gains aren't taxed until they're realized, would love to hear when that's not the case.

It probably has to do with Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which is calculated under different rules. It hit some of the Silicon Valley millionaires hard when they exercised their options before the dot-com bust, then held onto the shares for a year to get the lower capital-gains rate, and then the bottom dropped out of the market. Under AMT, those stocks represent millions in income even if they're now worthless.

Re: It could happen to you too

#83

Post by fnordfnordfnord » Thu, Feb 14, 2013, 6:40 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #75

fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have federal income taxes too. The US IRS will play the same sort of tricks for delinquent taxes (imagined and real).

I've found the IRS to be incredibly reasonable. I had a high tax bill due to non-realized gains (sigh...), but was able to get them to do a payment plan at low interest for a couple years. They were nothing but polite and accommodating. I also spoke with IRS CID on another matter (someone was making death threats to IRS agents, and they had mail through my anon remailer). Way saner than FBI or even USSS. (I had no in…

Well, a member of my own family has not had such a wonderful experience with them. Nor have I found my own interactions with them ideal. I expect they are like anything else, some good and some bad. It's a fact though, that IRS agents have a tremendous amount of power to wield over a person's life. Taxes being such a contentious issue, it's not surprising that people are sensitive about having their assets seized.

Re: It could happen to you too

#84

Post by rograndom » Thu, Feb 14, 2013, 6:47 PM UTC

I had a somewhat similar experience last year.

The IRS sent me a letter saying that they found I had mis-stated income from one of my freelance gigs. They said their records show that I was paid $800,000 for the job but I only claimed $800. I now owe ~$450k in back taxes along with daily accrued interest and penalties, we have enclosed a envelope for you to mail a check, etc.

I checked my records and I was indeed only paid $800 for the job. I checked with the company to make sure they didn't make an error when they filed their takes, nope, $800 the whole way.

Within days I had IRS agents calling both mine and my wife phones, calling previous employers, showing up at my house looking to put me on a payment program.

Our state and federal tax returns were held up and applied toward the "debt".

I'm sure that if I had a bank account tied to my SSN that those would be locked out as well.

It took 6 months and $3500 for a tax attorney to go back and forth with them over every single dollar on every 1099. They would literally go down the list and say "Thank you for bringing '$1099' into compliance, but we have found a discrepancy with '$1099 + 1', please submit a payment of $payment along with daily accrued interest and penalties".

Re: It could happen to you too

#85

Post by gcb0 » Sun, Feb 17, 2013, 10:34 AM UTC

jmj42 wrote: post #48

gcb0 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and managed to avoid pretty much any fees by following the guidance of very helpful employees shouldn't they not have useless fees to begin with?

I'm not sure the fees are _necessarily_ useless. Banking is a service, and services cost money to provide. I suppose an argument can be made that the fees are higher than they need to be, but then, banks aren't non-profit entities either. As for me, I've been a Chase customer since 2004 when they merged with Bank One, and a Bank One customer since 1990. I've tried a few local and regional banks, and brief stint with…

an uncle that worked too long on banks used to tell that when he started, he would be writing mainframes applications to calculate the 'cost' of a client for the bank. Basically, the bank would give the service as an investment to get the client money, and make money investing that money.

At some point banks started to charge for services and nobody could live without banks anymore, so he was writing cliper86(?) scripts to discover the 'profit' of a new client.