Adventures At The IRS

...so a few weeks ago we got a letter from the IRS. One letter to me (to make sure the husband got it), one to the ROMT saying blah blah blah, call us, make an appointment 'coz you're gonna be audited. Obviously, it was a little scary for me having watched American tv time and again seeing people led away in handcuffs for fraud or whatever, who knows(?!); read about how the husband's step-brother, MM - lawyer of the crooked-gay-naked-Survivor lose his case last month for tax-evasion. My stomach was in a knot almost immediately. I can well imagine why my always very cautious husband who gets quite easily stressed on a normal day has been pretty highly strung for the last couple of weeks since he made the appointment for today, March 1.

It was agreed that it was a good thing I would be away for a week in Thailand while the husband would be undisturbed and be able to organize his paperwork to deal with this upsetting meeting. I did feel bad that he had to do it himself but I also knew I was of no help to him. ...so I came home from a great vacation to a more then ever stressed out husband, a study full of paper - more than usual - files, binders and more paper... and oddly, a not very hungry husband lol. As timing would have it, I fell sick the day after I returned. That meant leaving the husband all weekend to himself to catch up on more unfinished work, matching the sale and purchase of stocks. Fun! NOT! It's insane how much time and work he's put into this... a rough estimate... hmmm... a full 9 - 5 work week I'd say. No exaggeration!

Being the supportive wife that I am (and very kaypoh also lah), I was quite pleased that I was not only invited to this meeting, but the husband actually wanted me there with him for moral support. So at 11am, I went on my merry way to pick him up for a 12:30pm appointment. Okay, a little kiasu considering downtown is about 30 mins drive away... but we wanted to be safe and early. We got there an hour early lol. He had part of his usual pack lunch/snack in the car before we proceeded into the building into a small cold (not as in temperature but as in non-persona) room with five chairs, a small reception window and cheap office carpet. I felt like we were back at MLGW!!! We sat there while I tried to ease the husband's temperament. The box full of binders from 1998 to 2004 at his feet, it was a little hard to distract the poor man. I think he wanted to be distracted. His laughs were louder then usual, his face hot from nerves... his mood... almost too good lol. No doubt he'd done his homework... oh believe me, he did his bloody work. But like being at the INS (immigration people lor), you never know what kind of an officer you'd get, what they'd ask and nightmare of all times, what you forgot to bring that you were supposed to.

12:30pm came and went and a good five minutes later, a black woman came into the room, introduced herself as Ms Brown (I don't know about you but I thought you never introduce yourself as ms or mister right?). We went into the room, romt took his binders and computer out of the box, set it up and there was a little look from Ms Brown and then she began 'oh... you brought your own computer...'. Yes she was impressed. But that was only the beginning. For the next 35 mins, she asked the husband about random stocks he traded. She asked, he provided details, calculations and answers to match her numbers. She had originally picked 40 random stocks from the list of 250 trades he made. But after the 4th one, she said "let's just skip to the last page". I could hear the screaming sigh of relief inside my husband's head. "There is a god!!" ...ok, we wouldn't go that far. Never mind the mistakes he found that the IRS actually owes him some money in return. Never mind about how much work on AT&T trade alone he had worked on the night before since it split and changed name and split and changed back it's name... all he wanted to do was get outta' that room. We managed to do just that all within the hour... with a letter to boot to say we owe nothing, we're clean and we're honest! WOW!

We were in the car within minutes, the husband was breathing regular again (first time in weeks), and I can't even tell you how many times he sighed and told me he's happy again - this is just on the drive home mind you. He was actually gonna' go back to school for the stupid ass faculty meeting, can you believe it?! I gave him my you've-got-to-be-phucking-kiddin'-me look and he made the right decision by calling school to say he was on his way home hee hee.

We came home, I made a huge batch of popcorn, he had a beer (now THAT is relief!) and he fell into deeeeep slumber within seconds :D