Where is my refund?

我一向討厭打電話，偏偏在美國很多事情都要靠打電話才能解決。

話說報稅截止日已經過了快二個月了，我卻一直沒有收到麻州的退稅。本來並不急，因為過去幾年從來沒出過問題，就算報稅單沒填好，稅務機關的人也會幫你改正，然後把正確的金額退給你。而且今年比較忙，一直到報稅截止日的兩三天前才把報稅單寄出去，根據網路上的說法，這時是報稅高峰期，大量稅單湧入稅務機關，在人手不足的情況下，收到退稅的時間會比早報稅的人晚很多。好吧，也只能等了……。

可是這星期初，雅玲收到她的退稅了。

我們的稅單是同時寄出的，依過去的經驗，應該會同時收到退稅才對。心想不對，就到麻州 Department of Revenue 的網頁查詢，發現有個地方可以查自己的 refund status (紙本報稅或網路報稅的結果都可以查得到，還蠻方便的)。可是查詢雅玲的結果是 "tax refund has been issued"，我的卻是：

We are unable to process this transaction through our automated system. Please contact our Customer Service Bureau at (617) 887-6367 or toll free at 1-800-392-6089 during normal business hours to speak to a Customer Service Representative regarding the status of your request.

好啦，又是非打電話不可了！

沒在台灣打過服務電話，所以不知情況如何，但在美國，通常都要等很久。一直放音樂或廣告給你聽，然後三不五時跟你說一句 "all of our representatives are currently busy, please wait..."。這對使用 prepaid cellphone 的我來說，實在是很傷，還沒講到話，往往就花掉我二、三十分鐘的電話費，而且這段時間又不能專心做別的事，又不甘願把已經等了很久電話掛掉，只能空等。還好現在實驗室每個人有自己的電話，雖然還是要等很久，至少不用浪費自己的電話費。

這支服務電話的內容跟以前打的差不多，先是自動語音，要你輸入 social security number 和預期收到的退稅金額後，就進入了無止盡的等待。不知過了多久，拿著話筒的手都痠了，電話才終於被接起，是個講話有點黏又帶點沙啞的老先生。以下是簡易版的對話內容：

Old man: "Thank you for calling Department of Revenue, may I help you?"

Me: "Yes, I would like to check my refund status."

Old man: "What's your social security number?"

Me: "XXX-XX-XXXX."

Old man: "This number is hard to not remember, isn't it. Ha ha!" (我的 SSN 號碼很簡單，常常有人以為我是騙他的。)

Old man: "Let me see... Mr. Lin? Let me check if there is anything wrong with your return..."

Old man: "You filed as both part-year resident and non-resident. That's correct." (因為我去年只在麻州住了半年，所以不能以 resident 的身分報稅。)

Old man: "Rental credit... let me see... what's your monthly rental when you were in Massachusetts?" (在麻州，房租是可以抵稅的。)

Me: "It's $965 per month, but I lived with a roommate, so would be $483."

Old man: "$483, bla bla bla... (一堆數字的計算). Everything looks right! At least no major error here. I don't know why the machine didn't take it. Maybe this paper doesn't taste good..." (好笑。不過至少我知道所有的報稅單會先經過機器的處理，如果機器不收的話，才會交由人工處理。長見識了。)

Me: "Then what should I do now? Will I still get my refund?"

Old man: "You did a great job! There is nothing wrong with your tax return!" (當天這句話他說了好幾次，我猜應該蠻多人都亂報的吧，畢竟稅單實在有點複雜)

Old man: "We need more time to take care of this by hand. Wait for another two to three weeks, and you should receive your refund, or a letter if something need to be clarified. If you don't receive anything after three weeks, call this number again. Then we can put a notice on your return to have someone deal with it specifically."

Me: "Ok, sounds good, thank you very much. bye"

就這樣，雖然事情還沒完全解決，但至少知道他們確實有收到我的稅單。希望三個禮拜後會收到退稅，我實在是不愛打電話啊！

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