Darrin T. Mish: Hello, my name is Darren T. Mish. I'm a tax attorney with an international tax practice based in Tampa, Florida. Almost every day, on our website and on our blog, we get emails from people relating their traumatic experiences with the IRS. I thought I'd take this opportunity to go ahead and read one of those here today. Then I'll let you know what my comments are about it.

It goes like this: Everyone has heard some type of horror story regarding the Internal Revenue Service, yet I never realized how traumatic IRS troubles can actually be, until it happened to our family.

Here's our story: About five years ago, my husband and I filed a normal tax return in March and claimed our two children, as we always had since their birth. Luckily, we received a refund of approximately $2, 500 about two weeks later.

The refund was deposited into our checking account. We used the money to pay off two lingering credit cards, in our meager attempt to stay out of debt. About three months after receiving our refund, we received a note from the IRS, claiming we had claimed a child who could be claimed on someone else's tax return.

Shocked at the mistake, we quickly placed a phone call to our local IRS office to try to uncover the reason behind the letter. The agent told us we were being audited because we had claimed our child, and someone else had also claimed our child as well, using the same Social Security number.

A hold was placed on our checking account, for the amount of the refund, until the audit was completed. This caused our account to be negative, and the funds were not available to pay for our checks and other debits. Needless to say, the ordeal was embarrassing, considering we had never bounced a check.

The audit took about two months to complete. In the end, we received our refund again, after the IRS found the mistake. As it turns out, the mistake was as simple as someone entering an incorrect digit in a Social Security number. Before the audit was finished, we had to open up another account at another banking institution. The hold on our account left us owing numerous charges, which the IRS initially refused to pay for.

Our experience with the Internal Revenue Service was traumatic, to say the least. Since our ordeal, we never spend our refund for at least four months after receiving it. The IRS is disorganized and unapologetic when they make mistakes. I truly feel bad for those who have a problem with this organization. Expect a bumpy ride.

That type of story is not all that uncommon in my experience, especially when you are dealing with taxpayers who are eligible for what is known as the Earned Income Tax Credit. In this situation, what the couple experienced was most likely another tax preparer, preparing someone else's return entirely, simply entered the wrong Social Security number in on that taxpayer's return. I can guarantee you that that taxpayer had a problem here, as well.

That goes to show you that you need to check your tax returns very carefully before they're submitted. I would also suggest that going to some of the seasonal tax preparation chains... You know the ones that I'm talking about, the ones that advertise so much on TV. The ones that talk about rapid refunds and e filing. Those ones.

It's a little known fact that those people are primarily staffed by, not volunteers near volunteers, actually. They're not paid all that well but people who have gone to a six week, couple nights a week, training course to learn how to use the software that is used by that tax preparation chain. These are not particularly well qualified people, and unfortunately, that's where most Americans get their tax returns prepared.

I'm not really trying to knock those people at all. Everybody's got to make a living and the fact that they can learn how to use the software and they can make a little bit of money during tax season is good for them. What I want to impress upon you is that you need to check your tax returns very carefully before they get sent out, whether they're e filed or paper filed.

You need to check your Social Security numbers. You need to check that your income's all included. You need to check that they haven't left any income off, that they haven't failed to include some, or that there's too much income, that there's enough taxes withheld, or whatnot. You need some basic education in how a tax return is prepared, so that you know when it looks right or wrong.

The next thing that I wanted to comment about this is calling your local office about a letter that you receive, or correspondence that you receive from the IRS is a big mistake. Your local office, called a "taxpayer assistance center, " which, I think, is kind of an ironic name, considering they don't provide, really, any taxpayer assistance anymore. But calling your taxpayer assistance center in your local area isn't going to do you any good. If you just feel compelled to call the IRS, which I typically suggest that you do not, but if you need to call the IRS, just call the local, or the toll free number that's on the notice that you received.

The reason I suggest that you don't even call the IRS is, it's a well documented fact that the IRS representatives on those toll free numbers are documented to give you the incorrect information between 40 and 60 percent of the time. I like my odds in Vegas better than that.

The long and the short of this story is, they claim their child as they're entitled to do so, their tax return was correct. They got audited. They bounced a bunch of checks. And none of this was their fault.

The only thing that they could have done better... Actually, this couple could not have done anything better. They did everything that they needed to do, and they were still victims of the IRS bureaucracy.

If you'd like to see more videos, or read more blog articles about this type of situation, I invite you to visit our website, at getirshelp.com. Or you can visit us at the IRS Problem Solver blog. Thanks for coming.