A Florida woman says more than $150,000 meant for the IRS never reached the agency and reveals how she believes the alleged scheme went undetected for three years. Kendall Smith claims someone she trusted to handle payroll and quarterly tax payments repeatedly assured her the money was being sent where it belonged, even allegedly producing what appeared to be IRS correspondence when questions started piling up.
It wasn’t until Kendall says she received an alert involving an IRS lien that everything began to unravel.
According to Kendall, she regularly provided payroll information and money for quarterly tax payments to a woman she trusted to handle them. She says she believed those payments were going to the IRS, only to discover later that the agency had not received them.
Kendall alleges that the money she believed was paying her tax obligations was instead being sent to the woman handling the payments.
The IRS letters didn’t immediately expose the alleged problem. When Kendall began questioning correspondence she received from the agency, she says someone showed her what appeared to be responses indicating the situation was being addressed.
Then another person allegedly entered the picture.
Kendall claims a man she initially believed worked with Intuit, the company behind QuickBooks, became involved as she tried to resolve the problem. According to Kendall, he provided what appeared to be an identification number and presented himself as someone helping with the situation.
She later alleged that the man was actually the husband of the woman handling her payments and accused the couple of working together to mislead her and her family. Those allegations have not been independently verified.
An IRS Lien Alert Changed Everything
Kendall says the situation finally unraveled after she received an alert involving an IRS lien. That warning prompted her to take a closer look at the payments and, according to her account, discover that three years of money she believed was going toward taxes had never reached the IRS.
She estimates more than $150,000 is involved and has said the financial consequences could threaten her family’s home.
The discovery has also taken an emotional toll. Kendall described being physically sick while trying to process what allegedly happened and compared learning that someone she trusted may have deceived her to heartbreak.
‘Sue Her!’: Viewers Urge Kendall to Take Action
Kendall’s story drew a wave of sympathy and anger online.
“Sue her! Take her licence away and get your money back!” one viewer wrote.
Others urged her to contact law enforcement, her bank, attorneys and insurers. Accountants and bookkeepers also weighed in, with some using Kendall’s allegations as a warning about allowing one person unchecked control over payments, bank accounts and financial records.
For Kendall, however, the immediate problem is much more personal. She says she’s now trying to untangle three years of tax payments while confronting the possibility that more than $150,000 she believed was being sent to the IRS may be gone.
And unlike an unexpected tax bill or accounting error, Kendall says the person at the center of her allegations was someone she trusted, which is why she described discovering what allegedly happened as heartbreak.
