Trying to work out a little issue with the IRS. I finally got assigned a Tax Payer Advocate to help me figure things out.

That was back about this time last year. I can’t call or email her. That just the way things are done. I have to either fax her question and she gets back to me or I can call her, and leave a voice message on her direct number.

She has been very good all year about giving me updates on the progress. Of course that’s only one a month, and I need to strive to grab up the phone and start talking when I see her name pop up.

Since she skipped a couple of months of reporting the progress to me I called her yesterday. Her voice recording went something like this: After she gives her name she says “Thank you for calling. I am unable to take your call. My hours are from 8:00 to 3:30 on Monday thru Friday. Please leave a detailed message and I’ll return your call. However with the high volume of call at this time it could take up to 4 weeks for me to return the call.”

That reminded me of a situation where I was dealing with the past due rental annual rental payment that the phone company paid me every 10 years to renew a lease. Roger Staubach’s company handled all the leases for GTE. So I finally got hooked up with Mrs. Green. I sent her everything I had on it, the original lease and a copy of a renewal and such. We talked back and forth a few times. Then I called and had to leave my name and number. I did this over and over and never heard back. It was strange because she had always been responsive even though I hadn’t received the 20 years worth of back leases. But it was such a slow process I didn’t thing that much about it. Then I realized I had been calling her and leaving messages for 2 years without ever getting an update.

I finally called around until I found someone in the Staubach office I could talk to. Once I told them the whole story and how Mrs. Green wasn’t returning my calls, the lady said “Mrs. Green died about 2 years ago”.

She said she would look into it and get back to me. That’s been several years and I haven’t heard anything. She may have died too.

Anyway, I decided there some things in my life that may never be resolved. That little land lease is one of those.