digrazia@nacho.DEC (06/14/85)
Bob Burnham's experience (with the IRS' claim that he didn't give them a correct address) is not unusual. I was caught in the Great Shredder Caper (sometimes known as the Great Mensroom Flush). Like the Pittsburgh regional processing center, the one in Andover, Mass., was losing people's returns in the men's room (maybe the ladies' room, too . . .) and wherever else it's fun to lose returns. They first told me I hadn't sent a Sched C, so I sent them another Sched C. Then they told me I hadn't sent a Sched D, so I sent them another Sched D. But I lost my cool, and sent an insulting letter with the second Sched D. After all, it's really not fair to hit the same taxpayer twice: they ought to have been satisfied with demanding one form a second time; asking for a second form a second time is just too much to tolerate. Incidentally, I wished to address my insulting letter to the individual whose signature was rubber-stamped on their letter. But it was illegible, so I telephoned some 800 number, and visited the IRS office in Nashua, N.H., to get it decoded. You'll never guess what: they wouldn't tell me whose name it was!!! Isn't that a big surpise?