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A widow friend said she got a bill from the IRS for $2600. This amount was her total amount a broker had invested for her. She called the broker who said the $2600 wasn't making much so she changed it to a different investment. The broker and widow went to the IRS office. The IRS agent said yes it was their mistake, all the widow owed was $111 transfer fee. The widow gave the agent a check for the $111.
My question is, did the widow get scamed or is this a normal occurance?
27 views so far and no opinions. As an elderly person and having seen so many scams in the USA lately, I thought this might be another one between the IRS and broker agent. I have never been an investor so don't have any expierence with transfer fees and such.
there are missing details in your story, which is probably why you arent getting a response. since you arent the person in the story, im not sure if there is any point in asking you to fill in the blanks.
there are missing details in your story, which is probably why you arent getting a response. since you arent the person in the story, im not sure if there is any point in asking you to fill in the blanks.
Since I know only what I have read here about investing, I probably couldn't fill in the blanks. The widow friend was happy she didn't loose her whole $2600, so I figured she felt it was a win-win situation. Maybe it was. I recall when 401ks first started here and several co-workers lost theirs after paying in for a couple of years. They thought it was a scam.
After paying into Social Security for 39 years I started getting my checks for $ 68 per month. After reading the CD blog I realized it was a form of "means testing" which boils down to just another scam. IMO
Thanks for your response but that was the only information she gave me.
There is a bit of additional info which is that I had asked her if she had done her taxes for this year and she replied no. Which means the IRS was tracking her investment by sending her the bill instead of waiting until she did her taxes. The IRS was probably notified of the transfer.
It would seem logical that anyone that invests would know if the IRS bills for a so called "transfer fee". It would also seem logical to me that a transfer fee should be regarded as a cost and the profit of the investment reduced by the amount of the cost. That would be the way a business operates. IMO
Having been in business for over 45 years, I have been scammed a few times, just goes with the territory. So naturally I am aware of occurances.
Well, honestly, not much of this story makes a lot of sense as told. (Not criticizing YOU here.) I can think of no reason why the IRS would bill her $2600 because she sold or switched a $2600 investment in the first place. And charging her a "transfer fee" makes just as little sense. I think there's probably a communication issue between the two of you.
Well, honestly, not much of this story makes a lot of sense as told. (Not criticizing YOU here.) I can think of no reason why the IRS would bill her $2600 because she sold or switched a $2600 investment in the first place. And charging her a "transfer fee" makes just as little sense. I think there's probably a communication issue between the two of you.
I couldn't make a lot of sense either LongArm but I didn't know much about the investment schemes.
If she started out with a 2500 investment, she would have had 100 dollar profit, or more profit if her initial investment was even less.
Does the IRS bill for the profits and transfer fees? Seems strange to me that the IRS would track such a small investment unless for some reason it was flagged for past expierences. Would the IRS just wait until the person submitted their taxes.
As I stated, only an investor would know if the IRS bills the investor. IMO
the IRS doesnt charge a transfer fee on capital gains. i just think there are pieces of this story missing and/or facts that arent straight.
im pretty sure the bank thats holds the investments reports the tax info to the IRS for everyone that invests there, so they dont need to be doing any special work specific to her to get that info.
the IRS doesnt charge a transfer fee on capital gains. i just think there are pieces of this story missing and/or facts that arent straight.
im pretty sure the bank thats holds the investments reports the tax info to the IRS for everyone that invests there, so they dont need to be doing any special work specific to her to get that info.
I do appreciate your thoughts CaptainNJ. She did mention in previous phone conversations that she had a lady friend up the street that did her taxes. So I assumed the lady friend might also be the broker. Could be misleading to assume. I can see a bank broker reporting to the IRS, I am not sure about an independant broker until the transfer happened.
I was scammed once when my business burned down and received a bill from Missouri Sales Tax Div. for a two year previous 2nd quarter sales tax. The bill was for 3x more than any quarters sales I had ever had in my previous 15 years. Plus interest for the two years. I had never been deficient ever and always paid on time to take advantage of the 2% discount. Of course all records were burned up, a trip to my bank resulted in information that the photo machine that takes pictures was broken down for four months during the time I would have paid the sales tax, usually one week after to the end of the second quarter. Of course the monkey was on my back to prove I paid the tax. I had to pay the $3600. At the same time, my moms estate was in probate and a lawyer submitted a lein on the estste for work I had him perform. I had paid the lawyer but that paid receipt was burned up also. My probate lawyer said I had to pay that one also.
Seems to me the whole country is running on scams more and more. JMO
THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR INPUT.
Last edited by Bluff_Dweller; 03-06-2013 at 02:38 PM..
Reason: Forgot the thanks message.
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