Painful Enough

Today is the last day taxpayers may file their returns for 2013.

Because we had to wait for the final piece of information to arrive in August, we submitted Form 4868, which grants a six-month extension, by April 15th. Last weekend we mailed in the tax returns.

For the record, we will receive a Federal refund but owe money to the State, including taxes and penalties (sigh). Federal Form 4868 and California Form 3519 (unnecessary if there's no balance due) grant extra time for completing and mailing the returns, but not for paying amounts owed on April 15th.

Coincidentally (or maybe not), we just received a phone call purportedly from the IRS. Below is the text.

Hello, we have been trying to reach you. This call is officially a final notice from IRS, Internal Revenue Services. The reason that this call is to inform you that IRS is filing lawsuits against you.

To get more information about this case file please call immediately on our department number 202-864-1284. I repeat, 202-864-1284. Thank you.

It should be noted that my caller ID says that the call originated from 932-569-3661, not the 202 number in the message.

From the grammatical and other mistakes (Service, not "Services"), the phone call is obviously fake. I forwarded the information (admittedly without much hope that anything will be done) to some government agencies. Paying taxes and filling out the forms are painful enough without falling for a scam.