Wilson Perry Kirby says the IRS sent him a $20,000 tax refund by mistake on May 10, 2022, and that he spent years trying to give it back. The 76-year-old retiree in Coopertown, Tennessee, says the agency finally started moving after a reporter got involved.
Kirby, a retired Montgomery County Highway Department worker, says he tried to return the money immediately after it landed in his account. He says he and his accountant ran into repeated obstacles as they tried to send it back, and that the IRS later charged him interest on the money he had already tried to return. This year, he says, the agency kept his entire refund.
For Kirby, the case has become more than a bookkeeping dispute. He says his wife, Norma Jean, died in August 2024, and the strain of dealing with the IRS has sat on top of that loss. He said the process left him feeling shut out of a system that should have been easy to reach, adding that he had tried to contact the president, governor and mayor without success. “They don't mind asking you to vote for them, but when you need help you can't get ahold of nobody,” he said.
Kirby says he still does not understand how the mistake dragged on for so long. “She didn't make a mistake, I didn't make a mistake, they made a mistake,” he said, referring to the refund. He said his wife handled the digital side of their lives and helped him navigate the computer work involved in the case. “She knew how to text, she got a computer in there. I don't even know how to cut it on,” he said. “But she stuck by me and I wouldn't have what I have today.”
The IRS would not discuss the specifics of Kirby's case because of federal privacy law. In general, the Taxpayer Advocate Service, an independent organization within the IRS, helps taxpayers navigate problems and resolve disputes. Kirby says that after the reporter got involved, the matter finally began to move, and he expects this year's refund by the end of the month.
He says the long delay has worn on him, but not broken him. “I'm hard-headed, and I get set in my ways, and I'm that way,” he said. “And if it hadn't been for you I wouldn't of gotten nothing done.”
