Dear John: A promised tax refund hasn’t arrived. 

I have an IRS letter promising a refund, which I have yet to receive. I contacted the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS), which called me last March to say the IRS had agreed to a refund. 

However, since then, the TAS has not responded to my numerous phone calls and faxes saying I had not received it. 

The original charge arose out of my 2016 taxes, which the IRS said were late. I paid the additional assessment in June or July of 2017. Only later did I think of investigating further, and indeed the canceled check for my 2016 taxes showed that the IRS cashed it a full month before it said it had received it! 

Its letter concedes its error, which is great. But where’s my money? D.M. 

Dear D.M.: As I recall, part of the problem is that you live overseas. But I called the IRS on your behalf, and you now have your refund.

I’m glad this column has gone international.

The fact is, you got your refund quite a while ago. I just never was able to put your letter in the paper because of space.

So you wrote to me again and said, “I just checked and the work you did for me getting my IRS refund ($13,196) never showed up in your column. You should have got credit for that.”

I’m happy to take credit for that. But here’s something that readers should know: Not all the problems solved by the “Dear John” column make it into the newspaper. There just isn’t enough room.

But since you insist, I hereby take credit for getting the IRS to pay you. Enjoy your refund.