By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-07-23 15:17:14 | Updated at 2026-07-27 12:08:33
3 days ago
An honest widower immediately alerted the Internal Revenue Service when they accidentally sent him a $20,000 refund - and now its officers are making his life a misery for doing so.
Wilson Perry Kirby, 76, has been warned his $930,000 farm in Coopertown, Tennessee, may be seized if he does not pay $2,575 in interest IRS staff have levied on the refund they wrongly sent him.
The saga began in May 2022 when Kirby was sent the refund check. He immediately tried to return it and even hired an accountant to flag the error to the IRS.
Kirby is not tech savvy and his late wife Norma Jean initially helped him try to untangle the dispute, until her death in 2024.
Four years after it began, Kirby remains mired in a dystopian nightmare where no-one is able to help him - but he knows that he is in the right and is refusing to back down.
'She didn't make a mistake,' Kirby said of his accountant during an interview with WTVF earlier this week. 'I didn't make a mistake, they made a mistake!'
Wilson Perry Kirby, 76, a Tennessee farmer, was accidentally sent a $20,000 refund from the IRS in May 2022. He immediately tried to return the funds but has not been able to
Kirby has been warned he faces losing his $930,000 farm in Cooperstown, Tennessee (picutred) if he does not pay the IRS money he does not owe them
IRS bosses withheld Kirby's most recent $1,800 tax refund and put it towards the total $4,300 interest they claim he owes on the wrongful refund.
They also sent him a threatening letter claiming the farmer still owes $2,575 they say is 'due immediately.'
'You must pay your balance immediately or we may levy (seize) your property,' the document stated. 'If you don't make your payment now, we'll consider your noncompliance an active choice and you could face a levy.'
Kirby said he cried when he saw that his refund had been withheld and that 'it hurt me.'
The desperate farmer says he has reached out to every lawmaker he can think of for help, without success.
'I've tried the president, governor, mayor. They don't mind asking you to vote for them, but when you need help you can't get ahold of nobody. You have to talk to a dang computer,' he said.
The IRS recently sent Kirby this notice demanding he pay interest on the refund the agency accidentally sent him and threatening to seize his property if he does not
The widowed farmer has been driven to despair and frequently cries at the thought of losing the home where he has lived for decades
Kirby said his wife, Norma Jean, was more tech-savvy than him and was helping him with his IRS dispute, but since she died in August 2024, he has been handling it largely on his own
Kirby reached out to WTVF in May to plead for help, with Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn calling him after to say the tax fiasco 'was settled.'
But then Kirby had his tax refund withheld and received the threatening letter warning he faced losing his home. He contacted WTVF again to share an update on the seemingly unwinnable David versus Goliath battle that he is fighting.
The farmer tried going to the IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service in downtown Nashville earlier this month, but he said the appointment did not advance his case.
'I wish they would get it straightened out. And get one person to work on it,' Kirby told WTVF.
'I've cried, I'm 'bout to cry right now. I don't know what I'm going to do,' he added.
The IRS stonewalled the Daily Mail when contacted for a comment about the misery its officers continue to inflict on Kirby.
A spokesperson said they couldn't comment on the fiasco because of federal disclosure regulations and federal privacy laws.
