Internal Revenue Service claims homeless Salem, Oregon man owed $6 million to federal government – then admitted it was all a mistake.
WASHINGTON – His buddies call him the Six Million Dollar Man.
But no, he\’s not a robot. Nor does he have any gold-plated biomechanical technology under his skin that would merit the $6 million moniker.
He is John Ramer, he is a homeless man who lives in the Union Gospel Mission in Salem, Oregon, and he had a lot to complain about until Friday, when the agency told him that his $5,981,104.02 tax bill was an error and he owed nothing.
"Regretting an error and sincerely apologizing for causing outlandish anxiety are totally different things," said taxpayer advocate Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) in Washington. "The IRS owes Mr. Ramer a big apology and maybe a job, if he can show he\’ll work the books with more care and élan than the existing IRS bureaucrats," he continued.
The IRS refused to comment on the case, but an agency spokeswoman previously confirmed that they were looking into Ramer\’s complaints.
"This should send a clear message to taxpayers all across America," continued Norquist. "Both bureaucrats and computers make mistakes, but mixing the two can yield a salmagundi of blunders. All taxpayers should double-check both their returns and refund checks for errors because, as we well know, the IRS is hardly a Six Million Dollar Agency."