the call…

I just got off the phone with a very nice lady from the IRS. The purpose of my calling them was a letter that I received from them, letter 4883C if you were curious; They needed to verify that I was who I said I was. The reason why I had gotten the letter was that a company that I have done part time work for had their HR files hacked. The company in question had sent out a letter about this back in February and after asking a CPA friend about it, I quickly filed my tax forms. I thought not much about it since I had gotten a notice that my tax forms had been accepted by the IRS and the state of NC.

Until I got the letter on Saturday …

I read over it, saw that it said to call them at a certain phone number (which I double checked on IRS.gov) and to have certain documents available when I called. So, I called… at 7am Monday morning. A time where I usually am still drinking my first cup of coffee. I got through to a real person within a few minutes, who was quite pleasant and she asked me several questions to verify I was who I said I was and that my return was actually my return. At the conclusion, she said that everything was good and that my tax forms would be processed. A good end to a phone call to the IRS.

I could tell that my husband was concerned while I was on this phone call even though he didn’t say anything since I found that the bed had been made and rooms have been straightened out … this usually doesn’t happen early Monday morning!

So, what does this have to do with photography you ask? Well, one of the things that I mentioned and most likely why the call went so smoothly is that I was prepared for it, I had all the information that I needed in order to answer questions and so it was relatively stress free for a call to the IRS. In photography, you want to be prepared for whatever may come up in the situation that you are photographing, be it making sure that you have backup equipment to having necessary permits if needed. If you make sure that you or the photographer you hire is prepared for what might happen, everything will go smoothly and stress free, and you will enjoy the experience!