Hey,
@sunflour....you just come and go as you can. If anyone "gets that", it's me!!
We ran into a serious issue with the IRS several years ago so our days of doing our own taxes are long gone!! It took a CPA and Senator Mike Enzi to get it straightened out. Um, the IRS doesn't like it when your social security info doesn't match.
I've often talked about our stepdad adopting Linda and me when we were married adults with kids of our own. Linda and I grew up just using his last name - he was "dad" and we were his kids. So when I got my first SS card to get my first job, I applied as Diane Hislastname. Back then, all you did was walk up to the SS office desk, tell them you wanted a card, and they typed it up and gave it to you. No ID, none of that. So then Ken and I got married and I found out that my birth certificate had my real dads's last name. Oops.
Didn't think much about it...just got a new SS card with the married name change on it, and went on about life. Then when I was in my mid 30's, Dad adopted us. When you are adopted - at any age - you are issued a new birth certificate with the adoptive parent's name on it. Every few years I'd get a notice that my SS records were off, I'd send in a copy of both my original and my re-issued birth certificates, marriage certificate, and my adoption papers, and then hear nothing for another few years. Same thing when we'd get a notice from the IRS after tax time. Then BLAM - they slammed us!!
This was in 2004. They took Ken's retirement check and instead of our check we got a notice of garnishment. They decided that Ken was never entitled to claim me as a dependent because I didn't exist, and going back to 1968, they wanted every dime of those deductions repaid, plus interest and penalties, and they were going to do it one retirement check at a time until it was paid off. But they were ever generous - they let us have $310.17 of it for ourselves each month and didn't take it all. What a flippin' nightmare! Fortunately Ken is a hoarder - yes, I said that! He has every tax return he's ever filled out since his very first one in 1966. Most people understand that we should keep the last 10 years of our tax returns. In this case, being able to go back more than that saved our hineys! Well, that and the fact that they HAD all the records I'd sent them time after time, and the fact that we were never notified of their intent. None of the letters we ever got from them said any such thing....just "This is to inform you that your IRS and SS records do not match. Please send any documentation you have regarding this discrepancy to:" and that was it. Having Senator Enzi as a Lodge brother didn't hurt, either!
But it still took 5 months to get it all fixed, and the IRS was examining every past return with a micron microscope! We got the money back...and the following year we got a 1099 (or something like that) from them listing that entire refund from them as "taxable income" we had to claim for that year. And there was no "fixing" that. Nope, we don't do our own taxes!
I want one!!!
.... 
... TGIF!!
I see nothing wrong 
. Glad ours is almost ready 
