3 Good Reasons Not to Like Tchaikovsky's Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairies
Posted
Sunday, May 18, 2008 10:04 PM
by
jstackepaper
If you haven't had to call the IRS recently, their hold music is Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Tchaikovsky. This wonderful, dreamy music plays over and over again. I'll say that this experience alone is a great reason why you might not want to call the IRS but I'll give you more very good reasons.
A while back, Mikey, my contractor friend, got behind on taxes. If you're are anything like Mikey, here's what you might experience:
You fall behind making payments on your taxes. You don't have the money to just write a check so you set up a payment schedule. (It might be wise to mention that you're going to be getting lots and lots of white envelopes filled with statements - literally every month about now, perhaps even a little registered mail!) During the process of setting up the payment, an IRS employee will be asking you about literally every bank account you have. In case you thought they didn't know, well, they already do. I think this is called a "veracity check."
Unfortunately, while these automatic payments are being made, don't forget that you have to stay current. Here's the reason why: If you don't stay current, and you lapse into another year of being behind, your automatic payments "automatically cancel" and uh oh, you have to start the whole process all over again - reapplying for a payment program (likely at a higher payment amount.) Whoops, almost forgot one thing: Until you have re-established your automatic payments again, you get to listen to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies over and over and over again.
My three reasons:
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Only you care about your time, don't expect the IRS to. They have a job to do. You are guaranteed to listen to the "fairies" a few times.
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Once you fall behind, you have to work twice as hard to catch up. The "fairies" really only play a minor role.
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Once you hear it a few times, you can't get the darned song out of your head for at least 24 hours!