Vicky And The U.S. Internal Revenue Service -- SIGH

[VickySGV]

I had my name changed back in 2012 by my State Courts system, and then went on the usual paper chase with about 15 different places I needed to change my name including all of the people who were going to be paying my retirement money.  Among those to be paying me money was the Social Security Administration, and my name change with them went through nicely although I did not get to do a gender change under the law at that time, that part took place 8 months later after my GCS.  Social Security and by then, my payers as well began reporting my name change to the Internal Revenue Service, and they changed my name on their records.  It seems that a year later in 2014 a single $30 payment was reported to them under my old name, and somehow the computer re-instated my dead name as my account name. 

 

I innocently kept filing my tax returns under my new name and paying with a check from an account with my NOW name.  In April of this year I filed as my NOW self and made a boo boo on the return in some adding, and got a bill for the small amount I owed IN MY DEAD NAME! 

 

Today I had an office appointment with a specialist at the IRS office near me and we got the problem cleared up.  It seems that when they electronically process the returns the scanner only picks up the first four letters of your last name and the SSN, and the scanner was not "seeing" my NOW first name, and I had not changed my last name.  The person who helped me was great about it and could on his own change my account name with my having my court order copy, my new drivers license, and name corrected Social Security card.   He admitted that since there were no longer any assets in my old name , it could create a collection problem for them which we both chuckled about because I had told him about my being a retired field agent for the State tax people.

 

The name game can take a long time, be careful, but don't get mad too easily.  I still have not done the Birth Certificate change but I guess I will get that going. 

[Carolyn Marie]

All's well that ends well, Vicky,  I'm glad you had a knowledgeable and sympathetic staff person to assist you.  In my case he was a know-it-all with an attitude of, "I've been doing this for 20 years, I know all the rules and I don't make mistakes."  I soon proved him wrong, but it wasn't pleasant.  In the end, though, it got handled and the staffer actually apologized and thanked me for educating him.

 

The real lesson here is to know your stuff, come prepared, and don't lose your cool.  Thanks sharing, Vicky.

 

Carolyn Marie

[tracy_j]

I am glad things got there! We have so many little threads intertwining as we grow. Some of them are not really fixed in space, for example,  credit ratings. Still I won't scramble my brain thinking how that works lol.

 

Tracy

[Jani]

Kinda like whack a mole!  Hopefully this is the last time??