She is not hurting us, not really, but her poison spreads insidiously through our household, slowly spreading and turning the crystal clear spring water rancid in places. I am determined to change the flow, but I don’t know how to do it all by myself.

Tax season is here, in full swing. For some it is a time to sweat, and wait it out until april, file extensions, and for some others, it’s a time to race over to the HR Block, or your favorite paid tax preparer and file those tax returns for a nice chunk of refund cashola. This is my chosen field, and I find it interesting enough to keep plugging along, although I know that I can make more money elsewhere, and should be following that almighty dollar, I am hoping that my interest and passion for tax returns and financial planning will eventually pay off.

But I digress.

TBM, she has been telling SO that he owes her money. Firstly she is telling SO to give her half of Munchkin SD11’s tax credit, which is $500. And then she is telling SO that she is in arrears for Winona SD18’s previous medical expenses to the tune of almost $500, so she wants that from his refund. For the sake of the story well keep it even numbers. This was last Friday, when she was “just thinking”. She has already filed her return and stated that she did not claim Winona SD18, because “she made too much money working at Denny's. Basically the earnings were on the borderline, but she did not provide more than 50% of support during last years fun and games.

TBM has been playing some dirty games, but she has slipped, as if she thinks we are stupid, don’t care or both. Working in a CPA’s office, I have some advantages. And one of them is having access to over 30-years worth of knowledge and expertise at my fingertips. AND she told SO that she was getting $4,000 back (hello, “head of household status!”)

CPA tells me that I should offer to do Winona SD18’s tax return for her, to get the real story on her wages (yes, we were thinking that we might be able to claim her…!) After going back and forth we decided the right thing was to NOT claim Winona and she would get her own full refund, claiming herself. That went all fine and dandy, and she was actually very appreciative, polite and responsive, it was her first real tax return, done by a real CPA.
And then BAM! I submit and immediately I receive an error. The error code is the IRS telling me that her SS was already being claimed on another tax return, and could not be used on the return being submitted. I have the obligation for Client-Preparer confidentiality, so I do not mention much to SO, and I tell the CPA, who tells me he needs to take it from here. He messages Winona that we have done our due diligence, discerned that her father cannot claim her, that her mother allegedly did not claim her, so we prepared her return with these assumptions, but the IRS is telling us the SS # has already been claimed. He recommended that she contact her mother, to confirm, and if her mother confirms that she did NOT claim her, then there is a possibility of identity theft, and therefore we will need to file additional paperwork, so that she can claim her full refund.

We are waiting for Winonas response. Winonas returns were substantial enough that she wont blow this off, hopefully. I think that she will accept that her mother needed her for “head of household status” and will accept the lower refund, for this year.

And now, we wait. And wonder what TBM will come up with now.