The IRS really wants its 4 cents' worth

The IRS wants Harv's Metro Car Wash in California to pay these. Oh, and $202.31 in penalties and interest.

If two IRS agents personally delivered a tax-due notice to your business, you’d assume you’d made a serious clerical error and owed thousands of dollars, right?

Try 4 cents.

That’s how much IRS agents told a manager last week at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in Sacramento, Calif., that the company owned in back taxes. Since the 4 cents dated back to 2006, interest and penalties owed totaled $202.31.

All for 4 cents.

The car wash’s owner, Aaron Zeff, told The Sacramento Bee that the IRS sent him a letter on Oct. 22, 2009, stating that his company “has filed all required returns and addressed any balances due.”

Reading that, one would gather that he or she owned no taxes. But apparently that’s not the case, and that has Zeff both confused and annoyed.

It’s hilarious that two people hopped in a car and came down here for just 4 cents. I think [the IRS]may have a problem with priorities.”