To people who don’t make a lot of money, it’s always soothing around tax time to rationalize, “At least my taxes are simple.”

Kathy Bornemann is living proof that that is just another misconception.

Bornemann’s mother died in 2006, and it fell to Bornemann to settle her affairs. She notified various agencies of her mother’s death, and in January 2007 she hired a tax preparer to do her mother’s 2006 tax return.

That really wasn’t necessary. Her mother made less than $4,000 in Social Security income in 2006, and she earned only $103 in interest. The Social Security income wasn’t taxed, and neither was the modest interest income. The Internal Revenue Service told Bornemann that she didn’t need to file a tax return at all.

Bornemann, though, wanted everything done on the up-and-up, and she figured that filing federal and state tax returns for her mother and noting that her mother was deceased would close all accounts once and for all.

Then she forgot about it.

Until this February, nearly three years after her mother’s death and two years after she filed her mother’s final tax return. That is when Bornemann received a letter from the Indiana Department of Revenue saying she owed $343.20 in back taxes for her mother, $40.43 in interest and $34.32 in penalties for a total of $417.95.

How could that be? Bornemann asked. It turns out that records with the Indiana Department of Revenue showed her mother had earned $10,312 in interest in 2006.

That’s not right, Bornemann said. She offered to show the state copies of her mother’s 2006 return, showing she had earned only a pittance in interest.

No, the state said, that won’t do. It needed an account transcript from the IRS.

So Bornemann called the IRS and was eventually told that it was just a decimal point error on its part that turned $103.12 in interest into more than $10,000.

But there was nothing the IRS could do about it, Bornemann said she was told.

Over the past several weeks, Bornemann has spent hours and hours speaking to people at the state and federal tax agencies.

At stake is only a little more than $400, but $400 is $400, and she doesn’t owe it, Bornemann says, and she wants to get the problem fixed.

Her efforts have gotten her nowhere.

We decided to call a representative for the IRS, who quickly put Bornemann into contact with a taxpayer advocate, something Bornemann had never heard of before.

That was about three weeks ago, and Bornemann has obtained paperwork from the IRS to submit to the state to clear up the misunderstanding. What she was given isn’t called an account transcript, Bornemann says, but she was assured by the IRS that what she got is what the state needs.

The squabble has been going on for two months now, and it will probably be a little while yet before the state responds to Bornemann’s paperwork, accepting or rejecting it. We’ll let you know how that turns out.

The lesson to be learned, perhaps, is that when IRS officials tell you that it isn’t necessary to file a tax return, it might be a good idea to listen to them.

Don’t call the cafe

In a column on the electronic cigarette, appearing in last week’s paper, we said the item was sold by a company called Happy Lungs in Urbana, located behind the only cafe in town.

Since then, Pam’s Cafe has been bombarded by calls from people wanting to reach Happy Lungs.

Rather than bother the cafe, Happy Lungs can be reached at 260-330-0300.