boobies?

no, it doesn't get weird then

/made me look

I was expecting added weirdness as well...which didn't materialize. :(

What's weird about it being the end of the actual story?

Just to confirm, there is definitely no weirdness.

If by "it gets weird" you mean nothing really happens, then yea.. it got pretty crazy.

Why are we reading a Chicago source for a Detroit story?

The weird thing is that they spent 47 cents on a stamp to tell him they owed him 4 cents.

If it is under $5, just write it off either way.

Where's the weird? Now he just owes them a penny and can call it even.

Our tax dollars at work.

About 10 years ago I dropped my tax return in to the local office and said to the receptionist "I calculate I owe you 31 pence - do I have to pay it?". She said "I'll call someone", and about 5 minutes later this man came in with a small money box, a receipt book and an official ink stamp. So I paid up.

/Surreal
//Wonder how much the admin and paperwork for that cost

TheGreatGazoo: The weird thing is that they spent 47 cents on a stamp to tell him they owed him 4 cents.

If it is under $5, just write it off either way.

Does the IRS pay for stamps?

FTFA: The lawyer said he tried to call the IRS' 800#, but gave up after spending a long time on hold.

That must be the weird part. Right there. Spent a long time on hold with IRS. Wonder of wonders.

Pardon me while I go and kill myself considering that I've gotten four redlights in a row that were apparently worse than this piece of shiat.

TheGreatGazoo:
If it is under $5, just write it off either way.

You don't even know what a write-off is.

/loves me some Seinfeld

ummm subby, where is the weird? No weird, and no need to read the article, all of the details are given in the headline.

Personally, the only weird thing I see is this article getting the green light.

jankyboy: You don't even know what a write-off is.

Do you?

So if I went to live in the US and I broke wind one day would that be news?

JacksBlack: jankyboy: You don't even know what a write-off is.

Do you?

No, but they're the ones writing it off.

Was the dollar the weird part? That he was owed less than $1, so they're going to charge him a dollar to request his refund? I don't get it either.

Très bizzare!

THROW HIS ASS IN JAIL, PEOPLE LIKE THIS MAKE ME SICK!

I can't wait for tomorrow's article.

Man jailed for owing government 4 cents. OH THE JAILARITY!

TheGreatGazoo: The weird thing is that they spent 47 cents on a stamp to tell him they owed him 4 cents.

If it is under $5, just write it off either way.

If you add up all the costs, cost of printer, toner, IT guy to maintain it and the computer that prints it, stamp, envelope, paper, etc., it is probably around $2 to mail it. Not to mention the phone and payroll costs when someone calls up and says "do you really need 5 cents that bad?"
Many companies won't send a bill if less than a dollar is owed because they will just loose money on doing so plus who wants to write a check for 5 cents?

Ever wonder why companies go bankrupt? Doing crap like sending a bill for 5 cents doesn't help.

Once I got a letter from the power company. At the top of the letter it said "This is not a statement". At the bottom of the letter it said "This is not a bill". That's all it said.

A friend got a shutoff notice from the same power company a week later. It said they were going to shut off his power if he didn't pay $0.00.

My point? Well, I don't really have one.

Maybe I need to start reading the threads first.

I hate you, submitter.

once I owed someone $0.02, i wrote to a newspaper about it and managed to get my story told on the national news, and then I sold the movie rights, and then it got weird.

d'art: Does the IRS pay for stamps?

if by pay, you mean do WE subsidize their mail? sure
we pay for their stupidity
sigh

hulk hogan meat shoes: Why are we reading a Chicago source for a Detroit story?

Because the first ten variations of the same headline were redlit.

/Not subby

Sooooooooooo...if it THEN got weird, he was put on hold and he hung up after an hour? If that's weird to you, I think subby should avoid horror movies.

I'm with the IRS here. If you let someone off a 5 cent debt, pretty soon word gets around and everyone starts short changing the IRS 5 cents. Over time this adds up and before you know it the economy collapses and we're all trying to scoop the brains out of our neighbours heads just to survive.

This man should have been locked up.

Koggie: A friend got a shutoff notice from the same power company a week later. It said they were going to shut off his power if he didn't pay $0.00.

A friend of mine in college once got a perfectly valid refund check from the registrar for a whopping $0.00

linker3000: About 10 years ago I dropped my tax return in to the local office and said to the receptionist "I calculate I owe you 31 pence - do I have to pay it?". She said "I'll call someone", and about 5 minutes later this man came in with a small money box, a receipt book and an official ink stamp. So I paid up.

/Surreal
//Wonder how much the admin and paperwork for that cost

Well, he was already there, so......

the oob: I'm with the IRS here.

Are you getting a kick out of these replies?

Trust me. The IRS will take his house, everything in his bank account, the clothing off his back, the money out of his children's saving account, just to get their $0.05.

Having claimed zero and still not received a refund in the last 3 years, I am NOT getting a kick out etc...

/interest in the bank is a biatch

and one more thing - FairTax.org!!! (new window)

Approves

/lazy hotlink

Byno: FTFA: The lawyer said he tried to call the IRS' 800#, but gave up after spending a long time on hold.

That must be the weird part. Right there. Spent a long time on hold with IRS. Wonder of wonders.

Pardon me while I go and kill myself considering that I've gotten four redlights in a row that were apparently worse than this piece of shiat.

irritating isn't it?

steve20832: TheGreatGazoo: The weird thing is that they spent 47 cents on a stamp to tell him they owed him 4 cents.

If it is under $5, just write it off either way.

If you add up all the costs, cost of printer, toner, IT guy to maintain it and the computer that prints it, stamp, envelope, paper, etc., it is probably around $2 to mail it. Not to mention the phone and payroll costs when someone calls up and says "do you really need 5 cents that bad?"
Many companies won't send a bill if less than a dollar is owed because they will just loose money on doing so plus who wants to write a check for 5 cents?

Ever wonder why companies go bankrupt? Doing crap like sending a bill for 5 cents doesn't help.

I can't wait until these guys and the peeps at the DMV are in charge of my health care.

Then it did not get weird. I can haz Detriot tag anywayz?

IRS sucks

/my 2 cents

When I last moved, I had to return the cable box to the cable company in person. I paid the last bill while I was there. About a month later, I received a bill in the mail for 1 cent. I called up to see if I really had to pay one cent, particularly since I had paid my last bill in person, and they had figured out exactly how much I owed them. The woman over the phone laughed and said, no problem. I figured that was the end of it, but the following month they sent me a bill telling me I didn't owe them anything. What a waste of paper, particularly as I was no longer a customer.

I thought the IRS always rounds things to the nearest dollar.

I still don't get how people have so much trouble with the IRS. Maybe I'm lucky, but the two times I've dealt with them beyond the normal forms:

1) I sent my check in, they claimed they didn't get it. Nasty form letter. Sent them a copy of the canceled check, they sent a very apologetic letter back, and that was that.

2) I wasn't economically stimulated this spring. I called the IRS, they figured out why it was bouncing back from the post office and found two other checks that also bounced back from the post office. Got all 3 two weeks later, and that was that.

Maybe it's me, but I've found dealing with the IRS to be a lot more pleasant that dealing with the DMV...

Howarth says he's not sure if there is a connection between the two notices, or if the refund represents a recalculation of the original bill.

I have a check for the IRS with a refund from my 2003 taxes. I didn't overpay in 2003, or if I did I got my real refund long ago. The check is my stimulus check from last year. Except it was first seized to be applied to a bill I had already paid. Months later the computer noticed the overpayment and carried the credit forward to the next tax year. Months later the computer noticed I had overpaid the next tax year and sent me a refund.

At the state level, I got a bill for four figures worth of overdue tax. I called up Mass. DOR to say wtf? The woman on the phone gave me some useful advice: ignore the letter. Their system computes the gross tax due and sends a bill for the full amount. Then it computes the payments already made and sends a new bill for the net. So it was like "you owe us $15,000!" and the next week "you owe us $15,000 and you paid $12,000 so you now owe us $3,000."

(Both incidents involved recalculations of previous tax years. Simple flat tax gets my vote, short of repeal.)

And by four figures I meant five figures. I'm not good at tax forms.

I got a refund for $1.27, then a bill for over $1300. I complained and they sent me a refund of $1900+. I'm waiting for another bill, hoping to parlay the $1900 into a million or so.

stirfrybry: IRS sucks

/my 2 cents

That means you only owe $.03 now, right?

/weird

Then it gets weird

no it doesn't. what is in the headline is all of it.

d'art: TheGreatGazoo: The weird thing is that they spent 47 cents on a stamp to tell him they owed him 4 cents.

If it is under $5, just write it off either way.

Does the IRS pay for stamps?

Postage, yes. Stamps, no.