The bank sent me a past due notice for the difference, which I paid the
next
day. It took 8 months to get the excess back from the IRS.

Well, Don, I can top that. As some of you know, as an employer, I must pay
employee withholding (Medicare/Medicaid and Federal) tax, known as "941
Tax."

The form you use to pay this monthly tax is the identical form you use to
pay FUTA (Federal Unemployment) tax, also known as "940 Tax.".

Both types of tax are paid at your bank -- NOT to the IRS -- using the same
form.

When I was pretty new to this whole charade, in my first business (back in
the late '80s), I accidentally checked the "940" box instead of the "941"
box. No one said anything at the bank, and I, of course, didn't notice....

....until I got a very stern warning letter from the IRS, stating that they
were going to repossess everything in my universe if I didn't pay the
employee's withholding tax, pronto!

Needless to say, I was dumb-founded, as I *knew* I had paid the tax. It
was only after checking the IRS's records that we discovered a HUGE "credit"
in our unemployment tax account, and an identical "shortfall" in our
"employee withholding" account. Duh.

Now, mind you, this is the same IRS, no matter how you slice the pie. All
they had to do to fix the problem was make a note of the error, and move
"Dollar A" from "Account 1" to "Account 2." Simple, right? Any first year
accounting student could fix this, right?

NOT. It took six MONTHS to get corrected... :-(

I finally had to speak with "Mabel," an elderly black woman in Kansas City
(probably the ONLY person in the IRS who knows how to actually do anything),
who was able to fix the problem in the blink of an eye. (I suspect our
entire government is run this way -- there's probably one or two old black
women in an office somewhere, patiently fixing all the stupid bureaucratic
errors that everyone racks up...)

And don't even get me STARTED on Iowa's famously mis-named "Workforce
Development" unemployment agency... :-(
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"