Okay, so I will try to make this very weird story brief, but asking me to do that is like asking me to be tan. I shall try.
Yesterday at work, a heavy set, older man with a jean jacket, large turquoise bracelets, giant white-man fro that would make Kev envious and glasses with tinted lenses that change with the lighting waddled into our office and asked to speak to the boss, absent nary a hint of pleasant nature.
The first person he encountered was my boss, who was walking out as he walked in, and thinking this portly troll with gaudy dress was here to solicit us, pointed right towards me and said "There's the boss right there!", a fun game we like to play upon any solicitor who walks into the office, whereupon the first person here who encounters him or her will point to the nearest person and say "THERE'S YOUR GUY". We are an office full of children.
So the goblin stands over my desk and asks in a stern voice, "Are you the boss"? Thinking he's still here to sell something, I say "Depends, what do you need". He peers through his glasses at me, I can make out a mole on his forehead that could double as a space station or moon and asks in a deeper, more serious voice, "Are you the boss?"
Getting a bit annoyed at this point, I say "Sure, I'm the boss. What can I help you with?". He informs me he is an officer with the IRS and is here about a missing tax file for our business. At that point, he realizes he's made an impression and asks me again, "So....are you the boss?" I quickly pointed to my CFO and told the IRS officer that he should talk to him and so he walked over there, opened up his brief case and produced a badge that identified him as an IRS officer.
Once we established who this intruder was, we listened to him as he told us that we failed to file a Form 1042 with the IRS for one of our hedge funds for the year 2011 and if we didn't produce this, he would have to write us up and conduct an investigation. My CFO gave him the number to our accountant and said he could take it up with him, but the IRS man said in his most dickish tone, "No no....I don't make calls. You make calls". So my CFO called our accountant and got voicemail. When he hung up, he said he'd try to find the missing file but it could take a while. "No problem" said the agent, "I can wait". We pointed him to the conference room and he sat down. He absolutely REEKED of baby powder, leaving an order trail that would entice Homer from several miles away.
I could tell instantly that my CFO was not going to track this document down quickly and having been a part of the 2011 audit and knowing what a Form 1042 is for, my mind started spinning. I raced over to my CFO's computer, did a search through his emails (which he archives) and found an email from our tax accountant clearly stating that the fund in question didn't have any dividend holdings or interest for foreign partners in 2011 and thus, no Form 1042 was filed. We printed this email up, showed it do the agent and suddenly, Mr. Gruff was Mr. Nice, said "That'll do! Thank you very much" and he left.
Nobody really said much of anything, but we were all a little puzzled. Why didn't the IRS send a letter or call us first? Sure seemed like such a small matter to begin with, why send an IRS officer out to our little office for this? Well, our accountant called back and said to us "That is very awkward, let me call the IRS". My boss told his wife about it, and she said "That is VERY peculiar, you need to contact the police!" (she's a bit paranoid).
Today, we took the business card he left behind and did a little Googling. Here is his
linkedin page, where he states he is RETIRED. That's odd....why would a retired IRS officer come to our office. So we did some more Googling....
HOLY CRAP!
There are dozens of Youtube videos of this nutjob. Guy must have been off his meds or something. We've called the police, the local IRS and the Treasury department to report this, though all attempts to file a report have gone to voice mail. The police were no help. Hopefully, we can follow up on this and get this guy to stop. What a whack job.