Can we just abolish the IRS already?
Now, I’m not trying to get political, but I think everybody can agree that the IRS is an absolutely terrible organization. Obviously nobody likes paying taxes, but thanks to the IRS (and our tax code that’s absolutely impossible for anyone to figure out), the whole thing is way more difficult than it should be and the whole organization just makes things way more complicated and frustrating than it should be.
And one Tennessee farmer who’s had the recent misfortune of having to deal with the IRS is speaking out after the agency is threatening to take his property – over a mistake that THEY made.
According to NewsChannel 5, the whole thing started back in May 2022 when 76-year-old Wilson Perry Kirby received an unexpected $20,000 payment from the IRS. The retired Montgomery County Highway Department worker from Coopertown, Tennessee knew that it was a mistake and attempted to return the money to the government – but unfortunately, he would learn the hard way that the IRS is impossible to deal with, even when you’re trying to give them money.
Kirby enlisted an accountant to help him return the money, but instead the IRS began charging him interest on the $20,000 while also keeping his tax refund to pay for the interest that they claim he owes.
Despite reaching out to US Senator Marsha Blackburn’s office for assistance, and being told that the matter was settled, Kirby continued to receive letters from the IRS threatening to seize his property if he didn’t pay $4,300 in interest, in addition to the $1,800 they’ve already seized from his tax refund.
The frustrated farmer says he met with the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service in Nashville this month, but unsurprisingly they weren’t able to resolve the issue. And after speaking with (and receiving letters from) IRS employees all over the country trying to get things straightened out, Kirby says he has a simple request:
“I wish they would get it straightened out. And get one person to work on it, instead of sending these letters from all over the United States.”
After NewsChannel 5 reached out to the IRS, the agency reportedly agreed to contact Kirby directly – although it sounds like they’ve been contacting him for a while and haven’t been able to sort out their own mistake. And after the story began going viral, US Senator Bill Hagerty posted that his office was looking into the situation:
Of course, it sounds like one senator’s office wasn’t able to get it resolved, so I’m not sure that adding yet another government office into the mix is really going to fix anything when the government seems to be the problem to begin with. Kirby says he’s tried reaching out to elected officials at every level, from the mayor to President Donald Trump, and hasn’t been able to get them to fix their problem. But hey, maybe now that his story is getting attention they’ll finally get their act together and stop threatening to take a 76-year-old farmer’s property over a mistake that they made.
I’m not holding my breath though. Totally useless agency.
