The IRS

One of my clients, partially as a result of his dementia, wasn't real good about filing his taxes for a few years.
We I arrived on the scene, 6 of the previous 7 years had passed without the more than symbolic flashing of the 1040.
I have spent many hours negotiating with the IRS and filing back returns.  All of this activity resulted in a payment plan that really is doable within the client's limited budget.  And along the way I discovered some extremely helpful IRS Folk (Heather Poppleton, I love you!).
Did you know that the IRS considers each year's return as a separate and unique thing?  I mention this because the first time that I thought I had negotiated a deal, turns out it was for just 2 of the six years in question.  And every time something goes wrong I get 12 letters!  Six by regular mail and six certified.  The workers at our local small town post office must think that I am the biggest tax loser in town.
I've been making the regular payments through the online system and guess what, 12 more letters in today's mail!  Turns out I didn't apply them to the earliest delinquent return.
Again rescued by another extremely patient IRS dude.  We are back on track.
Moral of the story: you can mess wit' some of the gov'mint some of the time but you can't never mess wit' the IRS!