If you live in the United States and think the IRS produces the most red tape in the history in mankind and besides that does everything wrong, don't think that's an exception. Here in the Netherlands, it's probably the same. This is my story, and it is keeping me busy for over 2 years now.

It began in March 2006 when my roommate would be moving out, she was going to marry and live with her spouse. The subsidized rent was on her name, and this had to be changed to my name. As we both were students, none of us had an income. A scholarship isn't considered to be income: it's either a student loan or a gift of the government. So this should be rather easy. She would cancel her application, I would apply for one and for the rest everything would stay the same.

At first I thought everything went rather smoothly: we kept getting the subsidized rent after she had moved out. In October this suddenly stopped. I inquired what was going on. I turned out to be there was a backlog of work at the IRS, so they never stopped my ex-roommate's subsidized rent. And because that application was still running, they couldn't process my application. But had been stopped now, so they would look into my application, I sent in in March (7 months before). They couldn't find my application, so if I was so kind to send it in again, they would make a note of it, so everything would be corrected. Fine. I re-applied for subisidized rent and would get an answer after eight weeks. Mind you: we weren't getting anything, so were forced to pay the full rent (twice as high) in the mean time.

Ten weeks later I called again, because I hadn't heard anything. It was end November. Things started to be critical, because I couldn't pay my rent anymore, because all my money had been gone, since I had to pay full rent. The next month, I wouldn't be able to pay rent anymore. They advised me to ask for a manual solution: somebody would process my application manually to speed up the process. I was getting desperate and didn't feel like meeting a tax marshall at my door or forced evictment because I couldn't pay my rent. So I agreed. Do anything you need to do to speed up the process. Two weeks later the full amount for 2006 was deposited, I deposited the 7 months we got from my ex-roommate to her, so she could pay her bill, the rest we used to cover the costs for our rent in 2006. And then I thought, fine all is settled now, everything will go automatically.

But of course, in 2007, where everybody got their subsidized rent continued, we did not. Something went wrong and I had to re-apply for 2007. Okay, just send me a form. They couldn't because they hadn't any forms left, I would get one when they had. So finally by the end of February I was ready to re-apply for 2007 (and again 2 months without subsidized rent). Again, I had to face the threat of a tax marshall, because we were behind in paying our rent again. Luckily after 4 weeks everything was solved, we got all subsidized rent until the next month in order to pay our bills. I was relieved that everything was finished. At least, that was what I was thinking.

About a week later, we got a letter, that the IRS was depositing €2,006 for our subsidized rent in 2006. I called to their infoline, to ask if they could stop that, because I already had that. Should I block my bank account and not get it? According to the lady it was better to receive it and pay the bill when they found out it had been paid twice. And there was no other way. It sounded rather awkward, but because I didn't want anymore troubles, I accepted. And then we got a bill, indeed. Of €40. According to the IRS we got €40 of subsidized rent we shouldn't have got. To my own calculations this was €2,006 and not €40. I've no idea where that €40 was for, but I happily paid, I wanted to get rid of the money.

Then it was time to apply for lowering of city taxes, since we got no income. But they look at your bank account. If you have too much cash in the bank, you don't get a tax cut. So I wouldn't get a municipal tax cut, because there was money in my bank that wasn't mine after all. So again I called with the IRS. I wanted to give them their money back. That wasn't possible (I am not kidding). They didn't want it back and I should wait until they sent me a bill. But I wouldn't get my municipal tax cut that way and get into financial trouble when I paid that IRS bill. But maybe they wanted to pay for my costs? Well, in that case, I should deposit that in another person's bank account so I could prove a clean receipt to the municipal tax office.

Um... isn't that fraud, IRS clerk? Well, in fact it was, but she didn't know what else to do? Well, what about giving me a bank account number and I would deposit it there. Well, she would make a note of it and if it's possible, they would call me back. So the next day I received a call from Enschede with information how to deposit the money. Happily I made a direct deposit to be rid of that stinking money. And then I thought it was solved. They had their money back, I got my municipal tax cut, everybody happy, right?

Not so much... I paid the money in May 2007 and a week ago I got a letter from the IRS. I owe them €1,996 and I had to pay it within two weeks otherwise they would send a tax marshall to collect it. Oh man! So I called to the IRS, and informed they got the money over a year ago. She couldn't find it, so I had to write a letter and send proofs (bank receipts) to show I actually paid the money. But I had to call the IRS office in Enschede the next day because the tax office in Groningen didn't know where to send the letter to. Next day: calling IRS office in Enschede. Well.. that kind of issues were done in Utrecht, not in Enschede. So after a long day of calling, I reached someone providing me information to write the IRS office in Utrecht.

To be continued, I'm afraid. I mailed the letter today. Hopefully the issue is FINALLY resolved...

Posted under Daily Life