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 Sometimes
some things that we all have to endure just don’t make any sense. Things like
taxes, the government and credit reports. Taxes don’t make any sense because
they never go down, just up. The IRS tells us that we will have s surplus in the
years to come, and instead of paying off the national debt, which costs us how
many billions a year in interest, they want to plow it back into other programs.
Does this make any sense? It’s like making money at maybe a 5% return and not
paying off your credit cards, which are running at 18%. Dumb, dumb and dumber.
But then here we’re talking about taxes.
Speaking of taxes, most of us would rather have a root canal
than have to deal with the IRS. So would I. I am proud to report that this past
week, I actually wrote a letter to the Director of the IRS commending one of
their employees. I know this is really unusual, but here’s what happened. Back
in 1994, I ended up giving more money to the church than I normally do
throughout the year. When I turned in my tax return I enclosed copies of the
checks, plus a statement from the church showing the amount contributed. For
some reason or another the person who examined my return disallowed the
contributions. Maybe she didn’t think I was that close to God or something.
Who know? Anyway, nothing was said about it until a year or so ago when I was
looking for a refund. Instead of getting the money in the mail that I was so
eagerly awaiting, I got an nice friendly note saying I owed another
$1,200.
Now anyone knows what happens when you call the IRS. They have
a voicemail system like no other. No One wants to call the IRS on his or her
own. However I finally got through and it was then I discovered this glitch that
had been carrying over for a number of years. Now owing money to the IRS is bad,
but try getting money out of the IRS. This defies reason. I argue and argue, but
to no avail. I finally end up hiring an attorney to step in and try to get my
money out of this deal. This was over a year and a half ago. About 6 months ago
I received a nice letter from a lady at the service advising me that she had
been assigned my case and would help me. I explained my situation, and that I
had all of the receipts that she wanted. She had me send them to her through my
attorney and after a few months I got a call from her telling me that she had
sent me a letter telling me that she had approved by refund. Unfortunately she
had sent the letter to some other part of the country and she wanted my correct
address. I gave it to her and a few days ago, my check arrived. I’m a happy
boy. I thought the only fair thing to do would be to write
a letter thanking her for her help and assistance. I know they get more
complaints than they do praises. It just goes to show you that there are some
nice people at that place after all.
I was going to write about the dumb things that government
does, but I don’t seem to have enough time or room to list all of them so
I’ll just move on to credit reports. A few months
ago, I got a flyer in the mail telling me that I could save nearly 10% per month
on a credit card. I sent in the application and didn’t think there would be
any big problem so was shocked to see a letter telling me that I had been turned
down. The letter advised me to check with the credit bureau and see what
happened. I was on the phone at once and quickly found that the IRS voicemail
pales in comparison to those used by credit bureaus.
These folks are professionals. What followed is one of the
dumbest conversations I can ever recall having in my entire life. Basically what
the operator (or customer service representative) said was…"You have too
much credit." How can this be I am thinking? I don’t owe anyone and never
run any big balances with any thing we buy. She goes on to tell me that since my
accounts have no or low balances, then the way they look at it, I could run out
and charge up all of these accounts to the hilt and then might not be able to
pay them off.
The fact that I haven’t done this or wouldn’t do this
doesn’t fit into the equation, does it? Somehow I always thought that having a
lot of accounts meant you were a good credit risk, not a poor one. Shame on me.
So what does she tell me to do? Why close those suckers up if I’m not going to
use them. Eliminate that temptation to spend that money. So what do I do? Why I
go out and close out the ones that I’ll probably never use again or haven’t
used in years. You’d think this would be the end of this little story
wouldn’t you? But, no, it gets better. I reapply for the card that had turned
me down so I could get the lower interest rate. What happens next? I get a
letter turning me down again. I call again and what happens this time? Why the
lady on the phone says…"You just don’t have that much credit history
for us to properly evaluate you, try again in 6 months or so." At this rate
I’ll be dead before I ever get this card issued. Maybe she and the first lady
at the IRS know me from somewhere?
Send strange things to me at www.pearyperry.com.
Don’t mail me strange things, just write to me about strange things.
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