My wife and I received a notice from the IRS yesterday regarding our 2006 income tax return. At first glance, I thought it said we underpaid by $107, which would be no big deal and I’d go ahead and pay.

Then I looked closer at the calculations the notice showed:

Total Tax On Return: $xx,242.00

Total Payments and Credits: $xx,241.63

Underpaid Tax: $0.37

Penalty: $106.65

Interest: $0.01

Total Amount You Owe: $107.03

You’ve got to be kidding–we underpaid our taxes by 37 cents and the IRS is dinging us with a $107 penalty?!

Page 22 of the 1040 instruction book clearly says that rounding to the nearest whole dollar is OK.  I think this needs more investigation.