Money Question
By finlander60
@finlander60 (1804)
United States
August 27, 2012 6:55pm CST
I went to the mailbox this afternoon and found a check from the United States Treasury that I ALMOST threw in the trash. I opened it and found that it was EXACTLY what it appeared to be. It is a tax refund check which, if it's legitimate, happened to come at a very opportune time. It is for about what we have been getting as refunds for several years. It is not what we were expecting for the 2011 tax year. It's for more than that, but we have already received the refund for 2011's taxes. I did not believe that it was legitimate when I saw it so I took it down to the bank and asked them to verify that it was, indeed, intended for us to get. They informed me that it was authorized by the IRS. We tried to find out for sure if it was intended for us, and cannot get this verified. I called the number that the bank gave me and got a live person to state that it was authorized, and that it came from the Kansas City, Missouri regional office of the IRS. I asked for the telephone number of the IRS in Kansas City, Missouri and, when I called that number I got an answering machine that asked me to tell them my phone number and my reason for calling them. I did that about 1:00 P.M. and have not heard from them since. Does anybody have any comments on this subject?
Big Update We did eventually start using this money for some projects. This turned out to be a big mistake. It was sent to us by the IRS but it never should have been. We had to pay back all of it, which took quite a while because I wasn't working and Heather wasn't making much at the time.
What had happened was another persons estimated tax payments had been credited to our account in error and we were sent what wasn't ours. The IRS kept our refund checks for several years afterward. End of story.
3 people like this
9 responses
@GardenGerty (157674)
• United States
28 Aug 12
In that situation I would hate to spend it and then find I had to repay it. I guess you can earn interest on it. I would not be like a discussion on MyLot that got deleted.
2 people like this
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
28 Aug 12
Hey, if it's their fault I'll gladly wait for a while to turn it over, and earn some interest in the meantime. Why not? I can't think of a good reason not to. Can anyone else?
@GardenGerty (157674)
• United States
28 Aug 12
I know I posted this on Gather, similarly, but I gave him the rights to the MyLot version. Anything to get him to participate. We have a guess now about where this might have actually come from. When we know for sure we will let people know.
1 person likes this
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
28 Aug 12
This really is me AmbiePam. How are you doing these days? It's been a while since we have seen you. Bob
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
28 Aug 12
Even if it turns out that we should not have gotten it, I see no good reason not to make something off of their mistake. What do you think?
1 person likes this
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
2 Sep 12
Putting it aside in a seldom used account sounds very smart to me, and hopefully you will soon get a letter from them explaining the check. Once I did actually forget to deduct something and the IRS corrected my return and gave me the extra money. That was very surprising, but they caught it in time to adjust the regular refund check rather than sending another one. Well, I do hope that you get to keep it :-)
It has now been 3 years since my late husband passed away, and this month the VA sent his last benefit check, only in my name. At first I thought that must have been a mistake, too, but there was a nice letter enclosed, explaining that I should keep the money. 
1 person likes this
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
28 Aug 12
I went back to the bank and deposited it into an account that we hardly ever use. I figure that that way, if they come back and say that they made a mistake, we have at least earned some interest on it in the meantime. If they haven't said anything in the next two weeks, we may start spending it.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157674)
• United States
15 Aug 15
@finlander60 I really had not intended to use it at all. Oh well, we paid for it.
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
30 Aug 12
This very well could be a new twist on an old scam and I would walk very, very carefully with this one.
The reason that I am so cautious when it comes to any check that you have not solicited is because of the fact that my best friend is actually spending some time in jail right now for cashing a check that supposedly came to her from a government office and it was actually a forged check. She cashed the check at a check cashing service and when the check came back as forged, they actually pressed charges on her saying that she knew that the check was a forged instrument.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157674)
• United States
15 Aug 15
@finlander60 Probably intended to receive part of it as a rebate. It sounds like that person did not do their due diligence.
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
30 Aug 12
Thank you for your advice. We are treading very carefully with this. That is why we merely deposited it in the bank in an account that we do not use except for one automatic payment. We keep that account with enough money in it to satisfy that payment, and not much more than that. The monthly withdrawal is the same every month. This account earns interest, too. If it turns out that we are not entitled to that money, we will give it back but, in the meantime, we will gladly accept the interest that it is earning.
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
30 Aug 12
I am trying to figure out why someone would forge a government check and send it to someone else. This doesn't make any sense to me. Can you enlighten me?
1 person likes this
@carolscash (9492)
• United States
28 Aug 12
I would be a little worried about it since you have already gotten the tax refund for the year. I think that I would wait a little while before I cashed it, but I do like the idea of depositing it and letting it earn some interest.
1 person likes this
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
28 Aug 12
We are GUESSING that maybe we have received this for a mistake that we might have made on a past tax year. That is what we are hoping for, at this time.
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
28 Aug 12
I sure hope it is the real deal. U may never hear from them
, hope i'm wrong.I'll keep my fingers crossed for y'all.
, hope i'm wrong.I'll keep my fingers crossed for y'all.@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
28 Aug 12
I've got my fingers crossed, arms crossed and eyes crossed. I sure hope that's enough.
@savypat (20216)
• United States
28 Aug 12
Hang in there, it sounds more andmore like it's ok. But you are right to go to theeffort to verify this,there are so many scams out there. I Think I would open a special savings account and put it in that for at least 6 months before I considered it mine, but I am a very caucious person. Hope it's yours. Blessings
1 person likes this
@finlander60 (1804)
• United States
28 Aug 12
I figure that if we wait for a couple of weeks, it will PROBABLY be fine to start spending it. We do have a few pet projects that we could use it for. We will wait and see.
