If you still believe “the IRS already knows what you made, they should just do your taxes for you,” this episode might slap that idea right out of your head.

In today’s 12 Days of Giving episode, I’m back with Enrolled Agent, Morgan Q. Anderson, breaking down a real story where the IRS seized a client’s $116,000 refund over a 1099-R that reported roughly $196,000 of “income” he never actually received. The investment fund admin bailed, paperwork got lazy, and a bad form turned into a six-figure tax bill and years of stress for a real family.

We walk through how this happened in the first place: an alternative investment, a change in administrator, broken communication, and then a “we’re done here” 1099-R sent to the IRS like the account was cashed out. The money never hit his bank account—but the system doesn’t care. It just saw a big number, flagged “unreported income,” and quietly grabbed his refund to cover a tax that should never have existed.

Then we get into the fight. Morgan explains exactly how she rebuilt the timeline, pulled old statements, got a letter from the investment manager, and used the Taxpayer Bill of Rights and the Taxpayer Advocate Service to force the IRS to slow down long enough to see the truth. This wasn’t a quick phone call. It was months of “we need 90 more days” letters, escalation, and refusing to roll over.

The payoff? The IRS not only returned his $116K refund, they had to pay tens of thousands in interest for sitting on money that never should’ve been theirs. That’s the difference between “the IRS must be right” and “prove it.”

We close with a playbook you can actually use: how to pull your wage & income transcript and see what’s being reported under your Social Security number, what to do when a 1099-R or other form is flat-out wrong, and when to stop DIY-ing it and bring in someone who knows how to fight inside the system.

👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/It_EkPInwj8

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