Via a tax re-assessment, I was supposed to get back a chunk of money from my taxes, around $1000.
“Woo hoo!”, I thought.
But reading the explanation sort of made my scratch my head, because it didn’t make sense.
I had a feeling they made a mistake without enough or the right information, so I called them to find out how they came to my getting a refund, because the numbers just didn’t add up, and I wanted details.
Turns out, I missed filing one document out of the 50 or so in French & English (hah!)
So I started the processing of redoing all my calculations and re-assessing myself.
As I went through the whole process I realized that I might be owing them money in the end.
At this point, I still had the choice to pretend this never happened and file it properly next year, but I hated the thought of lying.
So here I am, filling out 5 different forms, writing a very “I’m so sorry!” letter to the agency, and asking them to re-assess my credit and to ask them to re-check their numbers in case I owe them money.
Bonkers, right?
When they got the papers, they must have thought I was mad, because who in the world asks them: “Are you SURE I’m supposed to get a tax refund? I think I owe YOU more money because I forgot something.”
Crazy, some might say. But ethical, even if they would have never found the mistake in a million, billion years.
And now I can sleep at night without having to worry about this, because the bottom line is that it is not worth the cash to compromise yourself.
Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.
I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year.
Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about 
I'm proud of you!
Just last year I called the IRS to make sure they received their payment because I didn't recall getting a payment confirmation, though I knew I'd sent a check. The guy on the phone laughed at me and said I made his day because "if you owed us money, you wouldn't have ANY questions to the matter, but thanks for calling."
We're just weird.
In my experience, unpaid taxes come in bills with penalties and interest attached. Better to sleep well and save money, both!
i agree with you 100%.
no amount of money is worth a moral compromise, or a nice night sleep.
It's difficult, but satisfying, to do the right thing. Good for you.