A woman from St. Louis recently received a shocking letter in the mail from the IRS, demanding that she fork over over $50,000 in taxes owed for a bingo win of $150,00 in her local church game. What is shocking about the letter is that the woman, Rose Waggoner, never won anywhere near that much bingo money in the first place. Although Waggoner has won other more modest sums of money at her church's bingo functions in the past, the amounts were not large enough to require being reported to the IRS.
After being wrongfully accused of the $150,000 bingo win, Waggoner first tried to clear the matter up with the church's leadership. Wagonner remembers winning $1,150 once, which is still under the $1,199 minimum IRS reporting threshold. The bingo organizers at the church, on the other hand, recall a $1,500 win, which would have had to be reported. Either way, it appears as though some wayward bingo numbers found their way onto IRS records.
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