A conscientious widower found himself at odds with the Internal Revenue Service after they mistakenly issued him a hefty $20,000 refund. His attempt to rectify the error has instead spiraled into a bureaucratic nightmare.
Seventy-six-year-old Wilson Perry Kirby from Coopertown, Tennessee, faces the daunting prospect of losing his $930,000 farm. The IRS is threatening to seize it unless he forks over $2,575 in interest linked to their erroneous refund.
The ordeal started in May 2022 when Kirby received the unexpected check. Acting promptly, he enlisted an accountant to return the money and alert the IRS to their mistake.
Kirby, who struggles with technology, initially had the assistance of his late wife, Norma Jean, to try resolving the issue. Unfortunately, Norma Jean passed away in 2024, leaving Kirby to continue the battle alone.
Now, four years later, Kirby finds himself stuck in a seeming bureaucratic maze with no resolution in sight. However, steadfast in his conviction, he refuses to concede because he knows he has done nothing wrong.
‘She didn’t make a mistake,’ Kirby said of his accountant during an interview with WTVF. ‘I didn’t make a mistake, they made a mistake!’
Wilson Perry Kirby, 76, a Tennessee farmer, was accidentally sent a $20,000 refund from the IRS in May 2022. He immediately tried to return the funds but has not been able to
Kirby has been warned he faces losing his $930,000 farm in Cooperstown, Tennessee, if he does not pay the IRS what he supposedly owes
IRS bosses withheld Kirby’s most recent $1,800 tax refund and put it towards the total $4,300 interest they claim he owes on the wrongful refund.
They also sent him a threatening letter claiming the farmer still owes $2,575 they say is ‘due immediately.’
‘You must pay your balance immediately or we may levy [seize] your property,’ the document stated. ‘If you don’t make your payment now, we’ll consider your noncompliance an active choice and you could face a levy.’
Kirby said he cried when he saw that his refund had been withheld and that ‘it hurt me.’
The desperate farmer says he has reached out to every lawmaker he can think of for help, without success.
‘I’ve tried the president, governor, mayor. They don’t mind asking you to vote for them, but when you need help you can’t get ahold of nobody. You have to talk to a dang computer,’ he said.
The IRS recently sent Kirby this notice demanding he pay interest on the refund the agency accidentally sent him and threatening to seize his property if he does not
The widowed farmer has been driven to despair and frequently cries at the thought of losing the home where he has lived for decades
Kirby said his wife, Norma Jean, was more tech-savvy than him and was helping him with his IRS dispute, but since she died in August 2024, he has been handling it largely on his own
An old family portrait of Kirby with his wife and their son
Kirby reached out to WTVF in May to plead for help, with Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn calling him after to say the tax fiasco ‘was settled.’
But then Kirby had his tax refund withheld and received the threatening letter warning he faced losing his home. He contacted WTVF again to share an update on the seemingly unwinnable David versus Goliath battle that he is fighting.
The farmer tried going to the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service in downtown Nashville earlier this month, but he said the appointment did not advance his case.
‘I wish they would get it straightened out. And get one person to work on it,’ Kirby told WTVF.
‘I’ve cried, I’m ’bout to cry right now. I don’t know what I’m going to do,’ he added.
The IRS stonewalled the Daily Mail when contacted about the misery its officers continue to inflict on Kirby.
A spokesman said they couldn’t comment on the fiasco because of federal disclosure regulations and federal privacy laws.