Four years ago, a $20,000 check from the IRS arrived in Wilson Perry Kirby’s mailbox. He knew he hadn’t earned it, so he didn’t spend it.
The 77-year-old Coopertown, Tennessee farmer left the money untouched in his bank account and worked with his accountant to return it. But instead of voiding the error, the agency started charging him interest for holding money it had mailed him by mistake. The next year, the IRS used his $1,800 tax refund to cover that interest, and by July, it threatened to take his property.
“She didn’t make a mistake, I didn’t make a mistake, they made a mistake,” Kirby told NewsChannel 5.
He spent four years trying to make things right while disconnected letters kept arriving from different regional IRS offices. None of them were talking to each other. “I wish they would get it straightened out,” he said. “And get one person to work on it, instead of sending these letters from all over the United States.”
Two years into the fight, his wife, Norma Jean, died.