There’s Nanking, Beijing, and Flushing. All three have an Asian population. The joke of course is Flushing is in Queens, not in China. I hadn’t been to Downtown Flushing in more than 30 years; back then the population was Greek, Italian, and Jewish, but Internal Revenue brought my husband and me on this taxing journey.
The beginning of our saga, my taxation issue, was brought about by The New York State Internal Revenue Department. A letter arrived in late November declaring that our 2020 tax form was incorrect, and we owed $8000 in taxes and $2000 in penalties. H&R Block did our taxes. Therefore, we expected H&R to be responsible for the errors. Try to find an H&R Block open in Queens when it isn’t tax season. A phone call to their headquarters assured us that there was one open in Downtown Flushing. The address was 39-20 Main Street, 4th Floor. We live one block from Main Street. Our part of Main has a small-town suburban feeling. My daughter, visiting from Boston, accompanied us on this taxing journey to the second largest Chinatown in NYC, next to the one in Manhattan. While known as Chinatown, residents and shoppers consist of a multitude of other Asians well.
I will try to paint a verbal picture of Downtown Flushing as we drove and ultimately walked to reach H&R Block. Taxing, indeed!!! Bumper-to-bumper traffic, cars, taxis, trucks, and buses. Crowds, swarming masses walking in the road alongside moving vehicles; ignoring traffic lights. Concern that we could kill a pedestrian!! A major surprise awaited my daughter, the driver, when she came to a place on Main Street with large signs and words on the road that said, “BUSES AND TRUCKS ONLY!! NO CARS ALLOWED!! ”Do you see any police? We will surely get a violation ticket,” my daughter nervously exclaimed. Fortunately, we were able to safely turn here and turn there and drive out of the restricted zone. WHEW!! We found the first parking garage and departed on foot to find H&R Block.
Wisely, we brought a small wagon on wheels to carry our heavy 2019, 2020 and 2021 portfolio of tax documents. Down Main Street we trekked; rather we crawled. Throngs of shoppers, rushing in all directions accompanied us. We looked like tourists among the major Asian population. The shops were interesting and varied. Many consisted of wares on a sidewalk blanket. Bubble tea, herbal remedies and Chinese pastries were featured in some shops. The restaurants were crowded, and many were food courts, each with their own specialty: dim sum, dumplings, and noodle restaurants in abundance. A mecca for Foodies.
At last, 39-20 Main Street. A small open door with four flights of narrow, dimly lit steps confronted us. My daughter did not plan on her elderly parents mounting that mountain of steps without her investigating the scene at the top. In her youthful spritely way, she raced up and returned down shortly to describe that scene. “I reached a heavy iron door. When I pushed it open, there I saw a large busy hair salon with women in all stages of hair care. The iron door had a large sign in Chinese, a small scrap of paper, fastened with scotch tape said H&R BLOCK CLOSED. Fearing that they would want to cut my hair, I quickly departed.”
A costly fee awaited us at the Parking Garage. While the journey did not have a happy conclusion in Flushing, a further meeting in a very close-to-home venue appears to be quite encouraging. Thankfully, we had naively signed A Peace of Mind Extended Service Plan. While there are many steps in the road to cross, we may get to a “happily ever after” outcome to our taxing 2023 taxation issues.
