The Red Queen’s Race

I finished and posted an Office Action on one of my amendments earlier this week. Later, another amendment showed up, so I’m back to five amendments on my Amended docket.

I finished a first action on one of my oldest Regular New applications (the Request for Continued Examination case; I will now work on the non-RCE oldest Regular New). I also did a notice of abandonment on a case which I rejected more than six months ago, after receiving confirmation from the patent attorney that no response had been filed. All of this is OK, especially now that I’m working part-time, but I will still need to grind away to achieve good production for the first quarter of the fiscal year, which ends in two weeks.

Letter from IRS

I received a letter from the IRS today, seeking additional payment with interest because my reported income doesn’t match what was reported by other sources. I did not intentionally cheat on my taxes, but it is possible that I entered a mistaken number somewhere; it is also possible, for example, that the Three Initial Corporation, for which I did not do any work, or the Fourth Bank of Oregon, where I do not have an account, credited a payment to someone else to my Social Security number.

Twenty years ago, when I filled out tax forms on paper, and kept copies, this would have been easier; now, I will need to deal with TurboTax and/or the IRS to find out what my tax return even says. The amount which the IRS wants is something that I can afford to pay; nonetheless, I’d rather not, especially if I was not the one who made a mess of things.