Giving a little of it back to them

Just in via email from the PN HQ:

IRS Computers are Down

Patriot ties up Tax Agent for an Hour!

Here’s a little holiday fun from Ralph X.

Ralph received a CP-91 where the IRS said they would levy his SS payments. Ralph has already submitted a CDPH, so I told him to call the number on the letter and tell the IRS if they touched his SS he would sue them for violating a stay on collections.

This is Ralph’s response:

HAPPY NEW YEAR............ I finally got [an agent] on this after 4 calls. I just got off the phone with them and they tell me that their computers are all down in preparation for the 2011 tax season and they are currently unable to access any of my information. (Is that LAME or what?) The rocket scientist I talked to said that he didn't think any holding of SS funds had been setup yet, and since he's a rocket scientist......he should know.

Bottom line is he recommends that I call back Monday or Tuesday....whenever they manage to get the computers back up if that's the case. Sounds a bit "fishy" to me.

Anyhow, he was fairly nice and I managed to keep him tied up on the phone for nearly an hour talking nonsense stuff........I figure his work might pile up more than it already was. Then I ask if he could hold for a moment while I went to [relieve myself]......and never came back. He's such a nice young man.

Until later,

Ralph

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...............Now, how about this one, which is written up much more vividly in the National Examiner 2/22/10 (Nancy Scott, "Nurse Outsmarts the IRS!") This could be extremely useful for some college-bound youth in your life.

http://blogs.mccombs.utexas.edu/mccombs-today/2010/04/is-your-mba-graduate-degree-tax-deductible

In January, The Wall Street Journal ran a story about the fight of nurse Lori Singleton-Clarke to deduct nearly $15,000 in business school tuition as an unreimbursed employee business expense on her federal income tax return. The twist to the story, besides the fact that she represented herself in U.S. Tax Court and won (after three years of IRS discussions), is that it lays out a road map for other students in deciding whether to deduct business school expenses.

While the U.S. Tax Court issued a summary opinion in the Singleton-Clarke case, in a similar case, Daniel R. Allemeier, the Tax Court judge issued a memorandum opinion, which implies that the judge thought the case did not involve a novel legal issue and that the tax law in the area was well settled. Though tax court rulings do not create precedent that must be followed by every court, decisions like these are persuasive precedent and bode well for students in similar tax circumstances.