IRS scam
We prepared our 2017 income tax return using Turbotax and electronically filed it. We received an email confirming receipt. So we were disturbed in June to receive an IRS bill demanding payment of $5,774 for the Social Responsibility Payment due under the Affordable Care Act if you don’t have medical insurance coverage.
We have been paying for Medicare for many years. The payment is subtracted from our Social Security, and the SSA1099 form is submitted to the IRS before it reaches us. I returned the bill to an IRS office in Cincinnati with proof of our coverage. I thought that would be the end of it.
But, no, a couple of weeks later the bill came back from an IRS office in Ogden, Utah, with interest added. This time, I wrote a letter, enclosed copies of the SSA1099 forms and our Medicare insurance cards, and paid for registered mail with return receipt requested.
Next we received a form with two complaints: The return lacked signatures, and they were questioning an entry of $21 on line 64. When you efile a return, it is done with an assigned PIN; there is no possibility of a written signature. And the line 64 item came from a 1099-R form from TIAA, so I sent them a copy of that form. Again, this information should already be in their system.
Next came a request from an IRS office in Kansas City, Mo., asking us to file an amended return on form 1040X. They claim that the figure $5,774 appears on line 61 of our return. I certainly did not put it there, and it does not appear in my computer nor on the copy I printed out for our records. Line 61 has a box that you can check if you have full year medical insurance coverage, and that is all you need to do. Turbotax did this automatically, since I already entered our Social Security and Medicare information.
Wow, are they doing this to all Medicare beneficiaries and all the taxpayers who efiled? If so, it would be quite a scandal. It would be interesting to hear if others are having such problems.
Adrienne S. Dey
Hilo