You Could Have Had it by Now

My master plan was to sell the house in Texas and then use the proceeds to buy the house in Florida. But it hasn't quite worked out that way. The house hasn't sold yet but once the stager had us move most of our stuff out of the house, neither of us really wanted to live there anymore. So in the interest of getting on with our lives, we decided we'd just take out a mortgage and pay it off when the Texas house sells. 

Remember, the last time I bought a house was 1982. Was there an internet then? I don't remember. I think I had a cell phone, but if I did, it wasn't a smart phone. I don't remember having to supply the mortgage lender with tax returns and W-2s. It was probably one or the other, but I don't recall it being both.

But this time we've been asked to provide W-2s and 1099s in addition to the tax returns. Back in the old days, you had to attach a copy of your W-2 and 1099 to your tax return. It appears that is no longer done. It's all digital now. And while I have copies of the 1099s and W-2s, I don't have them with me. They are safe in a file drawer in Texas. The tax returns were easy - quick phone call to the CPA. And one year of the 1099s and W-2s was easy. Just go to the the efiling company's website and have them email you a duplicate. The problem was that in 2017, I prepared the W-2s for one of our companies myself. Because there were only two of them. Because it would be easy. And because I never dreamed I'd need them and not have them.

Bottom line, I couldn't get them. The loan officer told me I could sign in to IRS.gov and order them. He could also do it, but it would take him longer to get them whereas I could get them immediately. No problem! I created an account and they sent me an official transcript of my W-2s and 1099s for 2017. But it was only mine. Mark's weren't there. No problem. I'd just create an account for Mark and I'd have his as well.

You put in your name and email and then they send you a code to continue. Then you put in some numbers from your credit card or installment loan and they let you continue. Then you put in your address from your latest tax return and you can continue. Then you put in your cell phone number so they can text you another code so you can continue. This is where the wheels started to come off. I got a message saying that Mark's phone number could not be verified with his telecom provider.
I went back and tried to enter my phone number since it had worked once before. It seems that you can't share a phone. I got the message that the phone number I'd entered was associated with a different account and could not be used.

I would have to call Verizon and find out what was going on. This is where it started to get ugly. We have a business account with Verizon. They're better at dealing with regular consumers. Anything that has to do with a business account always requires a connection to a different department. So when I got through to the business department they told me that I was the administrator and Mark was an analyst. Whatever that might mean. In order for his name to show up on the account, I needed to add him as an administrator. And that would solve my problem, they said. The young lady told me she'd send me a link to a form I could fill out.

I got the email and opened it and I saw nothing about administrators or analysts. I had no idea what that whole email was about. But thankfully, there was a number to call. And this time, the young lady told me that the first person had indeed sent me the wrong email. She was going to send me the correct one, and stay on the line so we could complete it together, but then she determined that my problem would not be solved by that. She told me that all of the phones were registered with my name and what she'd need to do is associate Mark's name with his phone number. Something to do with caller ID. Well that sounded right to me. But for whatever reason, I wasn't getting her emails. As it turns out, it was no wonder. In between me talking to the first person and this person, someone had managed to incorporate the word "fine" into my email address. So she had to change that as well. And apparently it's a big deal when you change an email. All sorts of approvals required - which makes me wonder how it got changed to the wrong address in the first place. She made the changes to the account and sent me an email to which my response would be "approved". Apparently, unlike the changes that were initiated by the first call, (which would take an overnight cycle) these changes would be immediate. Not that it mattered because I'd already been booted out of the IRS site with instructions not to come back for at least 24 hours.

Believing that the problem was being taken care of, we set off to figure out why  we hadn't been getting our mail. It was then that I realized that we'd scheduled the home inspection for the same time as my dental appointment. While we were trying to figure out how to work though that, both of our phones started ringing off the hook. Between spoof calls, doctor calls, client calls, and finally another Verizon call I thought my head was going to explode.

Because I was on the phone, I wasn't able to help Mark navigate. After several missed turns, we decided to pull in somewhere, reset the GPS and try again. The only really testy call was with Verizon. I had no idea why that woman had called me. She told me that my phone was a consumer phone and not associated with the business. (I know that's not true.) I only pay one bill for all phones. And if I call them, I do get the notice that the number is associated with a business account. When I pointed that out she told me that was a billing issue and if I had questions I'd need to call billing. When I asked about the name changes she told me that was a customer service issue and if I had questions I'd need to call customer service. I was still trying to figure out why she'd called me. It was because of the email change. I said I'd responded to the email with "approved" and she said yes, that was why she was calling so even though I'd said it was okay, my okay didn't count unless she said it did.  But if she wasn't in billing or customer service, what department was calling me? Surprise! She was in Finance. Why does someone in Finance need to approve an email change that was only correcting something that someone had screwed up in the first place?

We just decided that we'd go to Verizon in person the following day to see what was going on. We went in, Mark's name showed up on his phone and he also showed up as an administrator for the account. It should be good to go. I just needed to wait another hour or so because if the IRS says to wait for 24 hours, you probably don't want to try again in 23.

We got through the first few screens and then Google started mucking around auto-filling fields with incorrect information and I wasn't able to edit it. I had to disable that auto fill feature in Google. (Apparently the default is to have it on because I'd never knowingly set something like that up.) So after three aborted attempts and restarts, I finally made it through to the phone verification page.

But there it was. Same as before. You can't be identified by your phone number. Nothing I can do. No number to call. If you can't be confirmed by phone the IRS is happy to send a code by snail mail to the address on your last tax return. You'll get in a couple of weeks. Maybe. If you still live at that address.

So this had consumed my time for two days. (Felt like a week.) But I admitted defeat to the loan officer who replied to my email with "Don't worry. I can get it. It will just take a couple of days."

So, if he'd asked the IRS for it when he asked me to get it, he'd have it by now...

Can I get a refund on my two days?