I got a letter from the IRS telling me that they didn't have a bank account on record for me. That was a bit of a head scratcher because I've been paying my taxes electronically for years. In fact they had just taken $21,000 out of my checking account.
All sorts of red flags went up but the letter looked legitimate. So, I logged into my IRS account (yes, I have an IRS account) and discovered two things. First the letter was legitimate. I even found a copy of it in my account. Second, there were no bank accounts listed. I suppose they don't keep a copy of the account used to pay taxes due.
After thinking about it for a second or two, I didn't see any harm in providing my checking account so that's what I did. A short while later I got another letter telling me that someone had made changes to my account. Well, yeah, that was me, so no need to do anything. I still didn't know why they needed the account information.
Then a letter letter appeared a week or two later telling me that they owned me money! Well, that was a first. Apparently my accountant had miscalculated my penalty for not paying estimated tax by $136.19.
The letter said that I could expect to see the $136.19 in six to eight weeks. So now I understood why they wanted the bank account information but had to wonder why it was going to take six to eight weeks to deposit a whole $136.19.
Today, I found out why is took six to eight weeks. They sent me a paper check. You can't make this stuff up.
