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Topic: Help Deciphering IRS Letter  (Read 1085 times)

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Help Deciphering IRS Letter
« on: July 28, 2010, 05:30:54 PM »
I received a letter from the IRS today that reads:

"We are writing to you because there is an error on your 2009 Federal Income Tax Return..."

Then there's a chart that lists the various line items on the return form (including Amount of Overpaid Tax, Penalties, and Interest), the figures I gave, and the figures the IRS has calculated. For everything in the IRS Figures column, it gives $.00 as the figure.

There's another sheet with a "voucher" you're meant to send in with your payment, if there is one.

It seems obvious if every line item for the IRS figures is $0.00 that I don't owe anything, but I just want to make sure I'm reading this right. I know so little about financial/tax stuff like this.

Why have they figured my income and taxable income, etc, as zero? 


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Re: Help Deciphering IRS Letter
« Reply #1 on: July 28, 2010, 10:14:24 PM »
Did you claim the Making Work Pay credit?  Did you file an FBAR?  Did you report your foreign income?


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Re: Help Deciphering IRS Letter
« Reply #2 on: July 29, 2010, 08:23:36 AM »
Thanks for your response.

I didn't claim the MWP credit or file an FBAR.  I reported all my foreign earned income, including self-employed income.  I did file the form to claim the foreign earned income exclusion though, so maybe that's why?  I know with the amount I make, there shouldn't be an amount owed anyway, but them figuring everything (namely my foreign earned income) as $0.00 confused me.  I just want to make sure I'm not assuming this isn't a big deal and that I'm good to go till the next tax year when they're might be something more I need to do.  I'm a worrier ::)


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Re: Help Deciphering IRS Letter
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2010, 05:13:39 PM »
Did you remember to allocate self-employed expenses to the foreign earned income exclusion?  Did you remember to attach a certificate of coverage?


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Re: Help Deciphering IRS Letter
« Reply #4 on: July 29, 2010, 06:28:19 PM »
Yep, included my self-employed income in the exclusion and included the letter HMRC provided me.  That said, as I posted elsewhere on here at the time, my local HMRC office said a "certificate of coverage" is a "certificate of residency" in the UK and that's what they sent me.  It doesn't actually mention specifically that my income is subject to deductions for social security, etc.  I included a letter with my return explaining this.  I assume if this was the problem, they would have mentioned it directly.  I'm clueless, obviously.


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