Now that tax day has come and gone, millions of Americans hope they have completed their taxes correctly. One man in California, however, suffered the penalty of underpayment.

Here’s the story from The Sacramento Bee:

It was every businessperson’s nightmare.

Arriving at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. “They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending,” says Harv’s owner, Aaron Zeff.

The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff’s on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was … 4 cents.

There might be a reasonable explanation for this story, but it’s hard to imagine one. There’s some indication that Zeff might have been several years behind on settling up, which could have triggered the personal visit. But why would the agents go on site to collect a couple of pennies?

The most important lesson is that IRS employees are not empowered with sufficient authority and responsibility. They should feel comfortable looking at the letter and making the decision not to waste hours of their day serving a notice for a nickel in fees. If perhaps IRS agents are not allowed to look at these letters, than why do they need to be hand delivered? Clearly, someone is not thinking conscientiously about work.

Based on such anecdotes it’s easy to make fun of bureaucracies from the outside, but we  all know that there are problems throughout every organization. That’s why Slaughter Development works with companies and non-profits to help redesign business processes based on stakeholder engagement. Our next event in the 2010 Productivity Series covers this exact topic: No More Duct Tape: Ending Half-Baked Procedures at Work. It’s on Wednesday, May 5 at 2PM and we’d love to see you there. Register today!

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