Bureaucracy that I get

Okay, I sent my taxes off in time. If I had known I was getting money back, I’d have done them sooner, but I was pretty sure I was going to have to pay. But hey, they were in the Post Office Monday morning, and I was fine with my taxes until next year. Well, okay, until I have to do my Virginia taxes, but I’ll take care of those this weekend. All I have to do is copy figures, mostly.

Then, Monday night, I suddenly flashed on how it only took one stamp for the envelope, and how it didn’t even weigh a full ounce, and I wondered: Did I remember to include the Schedule D? I quickly got the envelope with the tax forms in it and leafed through the papers. There were two copies of the Schedule D.

Damn. Well, I put one copy in an envelope and decided I’d call the IRS and find out what to do next. Good thing I did, because when I called them this morning, the kind lady on the phone informed me that my best bet was to sit tight and wait for the IRS Error Dept. to contact me. Apparently, if I were to send in another paper, this would confuse them even more and make things take longer, specifically, my refund. If I wait for them to contact me, there will be a fax number, they’ll collect my Schedule D, and send off my refund. If I send it in, they’ll hold my refund until they figure out why they have two pieces of paper with my name and SSN on them.

You know, I actually see her point, and even see the wisdom in this. They still have tens of millions of forms, even with electronic filing, and they need to keep track of them in an orderly fashion.

I wonder how long it’s going to take them to realize I forgot to put in my Schedule D. Perhaps we should start a pool. Hey, yeah, because if I win, I can add it to my refund check, which is going towards an iPod purchase anyway.