The good ole IRS.

So seeing how today is tax day. How fitting would it be that I recieve a letter from the IRS today. Yup, it seems they are "Examining" my 2004 returns in great detail. I think that's just their way to saying "We aren't going to offically audit you if you pay us money". And you guessed it. That's what they wanted. $784 to be exact. Well I wasn't initally very happy about this. Not that I currently am, but I was even less happy when I first opened up the mail. I tried to just set it on the bar and hope that it just goes away, but then I remembered that it had a "Were going to cut off your nuts if you don't" kinda deadline on it. So I finally read it and they were claiming that I took out over $3500 in retirement out of my 401k. Well I hadn't heard anything from my 401k people in quite some time. I called them and figured out what was going on. I had a 401k out there that had done pretty well for me. I had mostly forgotten about it. Not completely but just mostly. I didn't realize that any 401k under $5000 can be just turned off with out any real notice after your no longer employeed with the company you started it with. Evidently that's what happened. In June of 2004 they closed my account and sent me a check. To a home that I hadn't lived in a year. Needless to say I didn't cash that check, and luckly for me neither did anyone else. So after I got in touch with Meryl Lynch, no easy task on tax day, I put all the pieces together and talked them into reissuing the check to my new address. So even though the IRS charged me $784 to find my 401k for me, ML is sending me $3500 to pay that with. So, big picture, I did loose money. Taxes and penalties and I no longer have a 401k, but at least it didn't hurt as much as it could have.