0 comment Tuesday, July 1, 2014 | admin
Here's a bit of irony for you. Several months after I secured my own stipend funding as a newly-minted grad student, I got a notice from institutional accounting.Acct: *Ooops!* We haven't been taking extra-on-top-of-everything tax (that does not apply to student-secured funding) out of your paycheck for the last several months. Do you want to A) forfeit the entirety of your next two paychecks to cover it or B) would you like us to garnish your paychecks in installments for the next 6 months?AA: I choose "C) None of the above". You don't get to charge me that tax at all - my funding source is exempt!Acct: Actually, we can do whatever we want with your paycheck and there's not a damn thing you can do about it - we're trying to be nice here. Choose A or B. We really don't give a flying fuck if your funding is tax-exempt....cut to present day, 3 years later, in the midst of economic recession. Suddenly institutional accounting realizes it would be a good idea to clean up their books.New message from them:Acct: We charged you inappropriate taxes for the last three years. Please sign and return the attached form and we will petition the IRS on your behalf to get it back.AA: Asshats! What did I tell you 3 years ago? Did you listen? NooooOOOOoooo, of course not. Do you feel sheepish now? Yeah, I thought so.Who knew that the economic slump would help me out in the end. FSM knows they wouldn't be going over their books this carefully if it weren't for that. Here's what kills me though - all of that inappropriately charged tax went straight to the IRS. Institution never got their grubby paws on a dime of it. So what was in it for them not to get it right in the first place?