WTF?

Before leaving for my brief rest in Sullivan County NY I received the following letter that was sent to a client by the Internal Revenue Service -

“Dear Taxpayer:

We are unable to process your claim for the tax period(s) shown above.

We received and reviewed your Injured Spouse Allocation, Form 8379. Injured Spouse Allocation is meant for an overpayment that offsets to a federal or tax debt that is owed by only one spouse. Since you received your return was not a joint return, you do not qualify for injured spouse relief.”

Below is my reply to the Internal Revenue Service -

“Dear Sir or Madame:

We have received and reviewed your LTR 916C for the above referenced taxpayer and return, a photocopy of which is attached.

In my 40 tax seasons preparing 1040s this is the strangest correspondence I have ever received from the Internal Revenue Service, or any other tax agency, and I have received some strange ones over the years.

The letter indicates that the taxpayer filed an ‘Injured Spouse Allocation’. The taxpayer filed a Form 1040A for 2010 as ‘Single’. The only attachment was a Schedule M for the Making Work Pay credit. Prior to her wedding last month the taxpayer has never been married and has never filed a joint income tax return.

The taxpayer obviously did not file a Form 8379 (Injured Spouse Allocation) for 2010 or any other year. I have absolutely no clue as to where you got the idea the taxpayer filed a Form 8379 for relief as an injured spouse. Perhaps the person inputting the information on a Form 8379 at an IRS processing center entered the wrong Social Security number, transposing a number.

Please correct your records to reflect that the taxpayer referenced above did not file a claim for injured spouse relief. The taxpayer has been married for less than a month – not enough time to have been financially injured.

If you have any questions, or need any additional information, you can email me at rdftaxpro@yahoo.com.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely yours,

Robert D Flach”

Besides the basic absurdity of the letter – I thought all IRS correspondence was now in simple and proper English.

“Since you received your return was not a joint return . . .”

Huh?

TTFN