Death and taxes…..

They say that death and taxes are two certainties in life.  I am now a firm believer that beyond a doubt that is true.

Six months ago we closed out the estate.  Naive me, I thought that meant that the nightmare that was my life for the previous 18+ months was finally behind me.  Then out of the blue I got a letter from the lovely Dept. of Revenue of our State and they weren’t happy with something they discovereed in the paperwork that my attorney filed for the Estate. 

I contacted my attorney immediately upon receiving that letter to tell him what was going on and asking for his help in all of it.   Because, stupidly, I thought he would actually help me with this since he prepared the stuff and submitted all of it.  But I’ve also learned that assuming things isn’t the way to go either.

I waited for almost 3 weeks from initial contact with him for him to get back to me with some type of resolution to all of this.  He said he would call when he received the papers from me that he wanted to see.  I sent those last week, I never heard anything.  Then today I got the mail and tucked neatly amongst all the rest of the junk was a nice skinny little letter from him.  I thought it might be a "I’ve figured out what is wrong and I know how to fix it this is what we are gong to do": kind of letter.  But again, assuming gets a person in trouble.

Instead opened it to find a letter saying that the documents I had sent him were very, very important and needed to have been in turned in a LONG time ago, blah, blah,  blah.  I get that, that’s why I had asked when I received them if they needed them and was promptly told "NO" wthat they had everything they needed to do the final tsxes, etc.  So I took their word for it even thought i was a little skeptical about them not needing 1099 forms that were being submitted to the IRS, etc.  But whatever, they said no I didn’t push any more after asking twice.

He went on in his letter to tell me that basically he was taking no responsibility for ANY of this.  That it was ALL my fault and that I should through my self at the mercy of the state and say it was my mistake, I didn’t mean to do it, I wasn’t a tax dodger, etc.  But that if I were to write that letter then I had to submit it to him first for approval before sending it to the state. 

So today I called him to find out what the heck was up with that, why he was throwing me to the lions to be chewed up alive.  And he said the same stupid stuff over and over again.  So I asked him how all of this taxable income that HE failed to report because he supposedly had all the documents he needed was going to get paid to the State.  And he nicely informs me that it is a very strong possibility that the ENTIRE liability will fall on to me personally.  So I freaked at the sound of that and asked him how much we were talking and found out it was somewhere in the neighborhood of $40K.  Ouch!  Best case scenario is that the State took pity of me for making a mistake and they would allow all 5 heirs that originally split this cost to shoulder the burden.  And I agree, best case that is how it goes and we each take whatever poriton we would have had it been done correctly in the first place and it would be no big deal.  Anyone who has already done their personal taxes for last year would have to amend their returns but really not a big deal.

So I asked him then who would pay for any fines and interest and what not that might be associated with that and he said "Oh that would be all you".  Gee, thanks.  And who knows how much that could be because the state assesses the penalties for each case on a seperate basis so it could be a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in fines.  At that point I lost it and tried really hard to not have it come across that I was a crying wreck at that point.  And what do you think he does then?  He says "oh by the way, I’ve started the clock on this for what I’ve been working on so far.  So I will be billing you for getting this  settled because someone has to pay for my time".  At that point I was just done, I had like no words to say to him and it was obvious we were done with the conversation so we just hung up. 

I called DH and told him what was going on  and what the possibilities were for all of this and he got so upset he ended up leaving work early today to come home and help me try to figure out what the heck to do.  I mean, that is a potentially HUGE chunk of change that this moron is telling us we could be saddled with all of our own.  And it’s not exactly like it’s change you can pull out from the couch cushions to pay for, ya know.

So while we waited for the attorney to return a call to DH to explain it to him, because after all it not only affects me but our entire family if we get stuck with all of this, we started scouring the yellow pages for another attorney.  We called one, they were ok but for a one hour consultation they wanted $100 up front.  So we said we would think on it and get back to them.  I kept looking and found another one that specializes in tax stuff.  DH called them and got to speak to the attorney right off the bat.  They discussed things for quite some time and the guy was very reassuring that it’s not as bad as the other atty was saying, there are easier ways to get it all taken care of, etc.  So DH hung up with him, we discussed it further and I decided if I had to pay for an attorney anyway I might as well get a tax attorney that knows this stuff inside and out.  So I called back the tax attorney and I have an appt to meet with him this Thursday to get the ball rolling on getting to a resolution.  So I’m hopeful that we are finally on the right track. 

When my old attorney who handled the estate actually caleld DH back late this afternoon we told him that we were going to be going with a different attorney locally to handle this situation from here on out because he specializes in this, etc.  The attorney said that was fine with him, no problem.  He didn’t sound pissed off exactly, but he certainly did not seem pleased with us.  I think he realized that he was also not going to get paid for the time he supposedly spent on this either.  I never signed any payment agreements or retainers with him for this "new" stuff so I am under no obligation to pay him for anything he has done.  Bummer for him.

I am hoping with all of my being that with this new attorney that things go well.  That once we contact the state and submit whatever it is they want or whatever that they take it as being an honest mistake on my part to assume my attorney was being honest with me in saying he had everything and that I am not a tax dodger trying to scam the system.  Even the old attorney said that with as methodical and thorough that I was with everything else he didn’t "think" that I was trying to be dishonest but he certainly hopes that the State sees it that way too.  Just the tone he took when telling DH that on the phone how he "hoped" I wasn’t trying to avoid having

to pay taxes on this stuff, that he "hoped" it was just an honest mistake, that he didn’t "think" I would intentionally do something like this, blah, blah, blah.  Little did he know that he was on speaker phone at the time and I was hearing every word he said.  At that point I looked at DH and said "fire him" and he told him we were hiring a new atty and the conversation ended.  lol

I hope once this is taken care of that this is the last I have to deal with this stuff.  I know it won’;t be quite that simple that just because it’s over with for the State at some point in time that it;s over for me.  I know that if new forms have to get sent out to the other 4 heirs saying they are going to have to take on some more responsibility for this stuff, that it was an oversight in the original filings, that they will have to amend returns and suffer any consequence that might be for them personally given their circumstance that this situation could be far from over for a while.  I fully expect hate calls from them, if not worse, for this having taken place.  The old atty even said that given the family we have dealt with that both he and I are going to be in the line of fire for alot of flack.  I don’t like the thought, but at least I expect that it will happen.  If it doesn’t, great!  But I am never that lucky when it comes that family and this whole estate situation.  But I’m still hoping for the best, for the most painless way of getting this resolved as possible. What else can I do.  I didn’t do anything wrong but it still makes this very nerve wrecking.