Unaccustomed as I am to putting in an 8-hour day, these second-Tuesdays are long. Gallery and Friends of the Library meeting. I picked up Chinese carry-out on the way home.
The first thing I did this morning was go to the post office to mail the quarterly payment to the IRS. I went to the studio as usual on Tuesdays. Then came the bad news. Vicki opened her mail, and there was a returned check - the one I had given her last week. WHAT????? It certainly wasn't from insufficient funds.
Oh, damn! Old cheap Mary had run out of checks, rummaged in the back of the cabinet, and found an old box of checks. OK, I said - "I'll just use these up - don't need to order more. I pay most things online, so I don't write many checks anymore." They're so old the date line still says "19___". Well, guess what?!? The checks - the paper itself, not the money - are no longer good. I don't know why - I'm guessing a coding number or maybe some magnetic ink in the routing numbers now or who knows what. Oh, DAMN!!! And I've just mailed one of these invalid checks to the IRS.
I'd written four checks on these things - one a donation to the ambulance service (got that one back in the mail when I got home), one to pay a friend for a painting I'd bought, one to the Gallery for my dues, and today's check to the IRS. My first call was to the friend - she was understanding, not a problem. Next to the accountant to find out how to get in touch with the IRS to let them know, and what to do next. (I haven't heard back from her yet.) Then I called the bank and placed an order for checks through them, to be delivered in about a week. The guy told me that I can come by the bank tomorrow and they can print me some temporary checks to use until then. What a mess!
It's really hell when you shoot yourself in the foot!
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3 comments:
EEk - I'd better check my cheque (check) books as, like you, I do most payment online! Hadn't occurred to me that they could be "out of date". So annoying for you when you went to all that trouble to get your bills paid!
Your bank probably updated their computer system and at the time recoded their checks or they merge with another bank and merged account numbers.
I'd basically wait to here from the IRS, you will get an IRS notice that says your check was returned. On that notice there will be a name and number. There will probably be a penalty for a returned check. Since you have an outstanding payment record, I'd call the number and the person and that IRS notice and beg for forgiveness and my guess is they will do away with the penalty. Since a quarterly payment is an advance payment it isn't near as serious as it would be if it was a payment for a return just filed.
Bill
Thanks, Bill. No bank merger or account # change - just the routing number. I'm going to send in the replacement payment, but I will call if I get a name and phone # to reply to.
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