123456789
Those were the numbers that caused the IRS to send us a notice that we owed them $3,051 and some cents in back taxes and penalties.
That was the notice that gave OmegaDad and I heart attacks yesterday when we received it.
The reason? "For one or more of your dependents the last name doesn’t match our records or the records provided by the Social Security Administration. As a result, we didn’t allow one or more of your exemptions. This change may affect your taxable income, tax, or any of the following credits: Credit for Child & Dependent Care Expenses; Education Credits; Child Tax Credit; Additional Child Tax Credit."
Seriously. My eyes bugged out. OmegaDad was hyperventilating that we were about to encounter an International Adoption Horror Story, courtesy of the Social Security Administration. What? Don’t they believe that OmegaDotter is our dotter?!
I frantically fired up the ol’ laptop and pulled up our tax return. I looked at the information I had put in for OmegaDotter. And there it was, in all its glory: I had put in for OmegaDotter’s social security number the easy placeholder of 123-45-6789, because I didn’t have her card nearby and I was going to look for the number later when I did more work on the return. And then I forgot about it. TurboTax didn’t flag the when I ran the tax return error check routine, just before I printed the thing out and mailed it.
So first thing this a.m., I called the number listed. I waded through the menu. I reached a human being remarkably quickly. The human being, Davis, had a smooth and mellow voice and a calm manner. The IRS, unlike other financial entities, doesn’t take your word for who you are right away; you have to give lots of information to reassure them that you’re really who you say you are.
Davis informed me that they get lots of returns with the SSN 123-45-6789. So far as he knows, that SSN doesn’t exist.
Anyway, unlike most people, I found my interaction with the IRS pleasant, quick (relatively), and painless. Aside from my repeated banging my head against the table for my idiocy in doing this in the first place.
So, a friendly warning–if you’d like to avoid such a notice in your mail, do yourself a favor: don’t put a placeholder in the place of a real live SSN.
(Note: As suggested by commenters, I forwarded my info about the email to Snopes.)
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