So I have a short list of questions from Krim to get through, and I should probably do at least a minor update, but I've got to talk through this first, because it's the thing that's weighing most heavily on my brain as of this afternoon.
To rewind a little bit, I do my taxes online. Partially because it's easier that way, partially because I'm poor and therefore am able to do both state and federal for free online, partially because I don't have a clue and online software walks me through it. (For the record, these are legit online sites, not some sketchy deal, I swear. I'm not that stupid. XD) So when I did my taxes this year, it informed me that I got a $200 educational credit for my state taxes. I was pleasantly surprised because with no 2013 income I wasn't expecting any sort of refund, but hey, that's money I can use, woohoo! So on it went on my tax returns.
I got a letter a week ago (I thought it was earlier, but apparently not- the letter is dated May 20th) that said they did an adjustment on my tax returns and I don't actually get the credit. Okay, fine. I'm not going to argue- as I said, it's not like I know what I'm doing here and I wasn't expecting the credit to begin with. It's not like they're saying I owe money or anything, so whatever. It says nothing about having to do anything about this, just "oops, you don't get any money, sorry about that."
Then today I got another letter (dated for May 27th- exactly a week later, you'll note) that I'm being audited for that credit. And that, by the way, I can be "billed" for the credited amount and I have to justify why I got the credit.
Except, um, I didn't? They just sent me a letter a week ago to that effect. I never got any money, I even double checked my checking account back to before I did my taxes. No deposits from them. How the hell am I supposed to justify getting a credit that I didn't actually get? I wasn't trying to cheat anybody, and I never argued that I deserved the credit. I was totally willing to be like, yeah, okay, obviously the website was wrong, sorry. Just. Ungh.
I talked to Ai about it briefly and she thinks that it's some kind of computer/clerical error, at least based on what I told her via text, since I wasn't about to lay out the entire thing that way. I'm hoping so. Seriously, I can't afford for them to decide to take $200 plus whatever fees from me just because I can't defend myself. >_< I'm going to try to call them tomorrow, because that would likely achieve the quickest results and, you know, the ability to talk to a real person would probably go in my favor here. Even though I'm super freaked out about calling and I'm afraid I'll fuck things up even worse.
GAH. I'm wishing I'd just skipped it on the stupid form. Fuck me.
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This has been crossposted to my DW account. You are free to comment either here or
there, if you'd like to comment. Preferably here, but it doesn't really matter. Whichever one works for you. :D