I once screwed up on some form, paid the tax but didn’t check the correct box. Two years later, dozens of letters, mountains of contradictory instructions form the IRS I finally figured out what the problem was. Filled the correct forms and marked the correct boxes. Everything was perfect.
Then the IRS applied them to the wrong year.
Years ago, my late husband screwed up something and we ended up owing taxes. I entered into an agreement w/the IRS and paid faithfully every month. After I made the last payment, the IRS contacted me and wanted to know where was the check.
I told them they’d already cashed it and I had the canceled check. They required that I send them a copy of the front and back of the check, which I did, and they got off my back. I was a little ticked off that I had to do their work, but at least I had proof that I’d paid.
I have an LLM in Taxation. Two people in my cohort were in the IRS. Their war stories indicating a lack of coordination, an inability (and often unwillingness) for reps to put themselves in the taxpayer’s place, a lack of basic business knowledge, and the inability of computers to ‘talk’ to each other (at the time, they needed 7 computers to deal w/1 taxpayer), was staggering.
I’ve had a couple of minor run ins w/the IRS since then and though their computer system has improved, they are still an a$$ backward organization, even for the gubmint.