Thursday, April 15, 2010

The IRS Thinks I'm Number Two?

Today I got email from the IRS that started like this:

Dear Free File Taxpayer: #2


Congratulations, the IRS has accepted your federal return.


There are a couple of things we can deduce from this:

First, this means that I filed my taxes. Not only did I file them, I filed them with twenty-two hours to spare, which is a new record for me. Next year I might go all out and file on the 14th.

Second, it means that I'm too cheap to buy tax software. The federal forms for online filing are clunky and confusing and remind me of something that I might have worked on. (That made me laugh at 2am when I first thought of it.)

And finally... what's up with the "Dear Free File Taxpayer: #2"? Despite the hordes of procrastinators out there, I know I wasn't the second person in the US to file my federal taxes, so it's not like it's a counter. And I've only filed once this year (as is proper). So, is this their subtle way of telling me I'm a piece of doodoo? Going with the "I could have written this software" theory, I'm guessing that it's a debug statement that was accidentally left in.

Now I'm just waiting for the IRS computers to start sending me mail once a minute for the next 48 hours. Then I'll be sure the software is something I might have been involved with...

2 comments:

Eric said...

And finally... what's up with the "Dear Free File Taxpayer: #2"?

Maybe it's potty humor.

Theresa B (of Nebulopathy) said...

Which, again, makes it eligible to be one of the projects I've worked on...