your "m.i." reminds me so of someone i worked with years ago. i still recall her tirade one year around this time about the irs-
her-'i hate them, i hate them, i hate them'
us-'who?'
her-'the irs'.
long silence (noone responds because honestly-who does'nt hate the irs?)
her-'are'nt you going to ask me why i hate them?'
us-'o.k.-why do you hate the i.r.s.?'
her-'because they bounced my tax return and are now questioning all the ones i put in for the last 7 years!'.
us-'oh wow, that's terrible'.
her-'i mean, who are they to think they can question my personal deductions?'
smart **** in the corner cubicle 'actualy, i thinks that's probably one of the first things listed in their job description'
her- 'well, maybe-but realy, i've been listing my grandkids as dependants since they were born (gkids are like 10 and 12)'.
us-'wait, i'm confused-don't your grandkids live with their mom and dad, the mom and dad that both have realy good jobs-why don't they claim them as deductions?'

.
her-'they do-but i do too, but apparantly since i used the correct social security numbers for them this year it's caused a problem'

.
us- 'huhhhhhhhhh?'
her-'well, i never knew their real social security numbers so i would just guess but this year i had them cuz i bought them savings bonds so i put them on the return and now the irs says there's a problem'
us-'wait, why were you listing the gkids as deductions in the first place?'.
her-'the tax law says if you provide at least half of the cost of raising a child you are eligible to list them as a dependant'.
us-'so you provide more than half the support for your gkids?'.
her-'well, yeah- i know what it cost me to raise my kids per year (like 40 years earlier) and i know i spend more than half of that on each of the kids between gifts and all those sales things they bring me from their schools each year, so i should get the deductions'. 'i mean, my daughter told me that when her return got bounced and she saw the irs guy last week he told her she was eligible to the deductions because she spends more than i do on them, but i don't think that should count-cuz she overspends'.
the truly scare thing about this situation-we all worked for a government agency that routinely provided basic tax filing information for our clients
thanks for bringing back some interesting memories
