Imagine working for the same company for 27 years, only to discover they've been running a Shopify (SHOP) store under your Social Security number. That's the situation Aaron from Colorado Springs has been dealing with for three years, and it's resulted in a financial nightmare that would make anyone's stomach drop.
The IRS says Aaron owes over $180,000 in back federal taxes. Colorado's Department of Revenue tacked on another $13,000 for good measure. And this week, he got word that his wages are about to be garnished.
Stop Waiting for Someone Else to Fix This
Aaron, who currently earns around $130,000 a year, recently called into "The Ramsey Show" to ask personal finance experts Dave Ramsey and Jade Warshaw for advice. He explained that he had reached out to his former employer repeatedly to get the mess cleaned up, but nothing happened. The company just ignored the problem.
Ramsey didn't hold back. "Dude, you need to hire an attorney," he told Aaron. "You should have called them before you called us."
Aaron admitted he had contacted a tax attorney six months earlier, but the $6,000 fee scared him away. That's when Ramsey really went off: "You can't afford not to do it. Colorado's getting ready to take $6,000 out of your butt any minute."
When Aaron suggested that maybe the IRS could help him sort things out, Ramsey was incredulous. "You just said the IRS is competent. That's hilarious. The IRS is going to help you? Come on, man. Really?"
Be the Hero, Not the Victim
The core issue, according to Ramsey, is that Aaron has been treating this like a problem that will somehow resolve itself. It won't. Ramsey pushed him hard to change his approach and take aggressive action.
"You need to be the hero of the story, not the victim," Ramsey said. "You hire an attorney who gets excited about this. Not one who's like, 'I don't know what we're going to do.' If that's the attorney, fire them before you hire them."
Ramsey encouraged Aaron to either reconnect with the attorney he had spoken to six months ago or go through the Ramsey Solutions tax pro network to find local representation. "You need legal representation by the close of business today," he said.
Ramsey also pointed out that if something like this had happened at his own company, he would have been mortified and would have fixed it immediately, probably firing someone in the process. The fact that Aaron's former employer hasn't lifted a finger to correct their mistake speaks volumes.
Three Years of Stress
Aaron admitted the situation had been weighing on him for years. Ramsey's response was direct: "You need to be free from this. And the only one who's going to set you free is you with action."
In his final push, Ramsey delivered one of his trademark lines about avoidance: "When you know something's wrong and you kick it under the rug, you know what you get? Lumpy rug."
The message was clear: stop hiding, stop hoping the problem disappears, and get a lawyer who will fight this thing properly. Because when you're staring down a six-figure tax bill for income you never earned, hoping for the best is not a strategy.