Annals of IRS Mailings

I got three envelopes in the mail today, all from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Two were dated August 18, one was dated August 25:

The first notice says that I’m owed a refund of $1660.11.

The second notice says that I owe them $6713.

The third notice says that I owe them $48.68.

All three notices relate to the 2017 tax year, the year I became subject to the IRS 965 “GILTI” tax, by virtue of being an American citizen owner of an overseas (Canadian) corporation. This was an artefact of the first Trump administration.

It took me 20 minutes on hold with the IRS international desk to learn that the third notice, the one that tells me I owe them $48.68, is the real one. Actually, they are all “real,”; that’s the one that’s the most up-to-date.

It turns out that the notice telling me I owed them $6713 was a notice telling me that, in 2017, I had originally owed them $6713. Nowhere on the notice does it actually say that.

Left unexplained is how I ended up, for a few short days, in a position where they owed me money.

I thanked the agent for their help, especially because they were able to tell me that I didn’t owe them $6713. They were happy about that too. We wished each other a good day.

I stopped being a US citizen on June 13, 2025. I still have to file a tax return for this year, which will be my last official act. 

I will not be sad to see this bureaucratic relationship in the review mirror.