We got another one today, we owe blah blah blah for blah blah not filed in 2006.

That's about the 10th one we've received this year. It started off with our tax return, they only received Form ####-??? whatever and we were late so we owe $84. Made the call, faxed them the tax return, all 12lbs of it, asked about the late filing since it was post marked right in front of my partner(and weighed about 12lbs[slight exaggeration]), they said they would have to check the envelope. They lost the WHOLE FRICKEN' TAX RETURN, how the hell are they going to find the envelope????? Somebody will call back within 30 days. No call.

I told my partner "screw it, pay it". 3 weeks later we get another letter, you owe $XXX for late filing, made the call again, they said the letter must have gone out before they received our check, even though the check cleared 9 days before the letter was written. "We'll check into it and somebody will call within 30 days". No call again, never heard anything else.

Multiple letters with fines for not filing form #### in QX 200X. Forms we were not required to file. On the phone again explain that form is for a sole proprietorship or whatever, we are a C corp. "I'll make a note and somebody will call within 30 days", still no call and hear nothing more.

Today was a $1000 fine for not filing copies of W-2s in 2006, there were no W-2s in 2006, and our filings show that.

Are these assholes just phishing for money???? I'm guessing we shouldn't have paid the late filing fee even though we weren't late. Did that tag us as suckers that will pay anything and we're getting IRS form letters for BS with fines? Nothing has even been remotely applicable to what we do and what we need to file.

On the personal side Massachusetts is still coming after me full bore for 2004 income taxes even though I haven't live in MA since 2001. I apparently owe $4800 even though I've sent them lease agreements, drivers license, electric bill, gas bill, doctors billS, NM state tax returns that show I filed and payed as a resident in NM. And my 'case worker' agrees that I don't own them a penny, but she doesn't make the decisions. Now they want $65 to challenge the ruling that I still owe MA state tax, they also wanted my bank account # and routing #(I don't think so). This all started after MA went after Toys'r'us and I think Citibank for all kinds of BS, and as was mentioned in the tire warranty thread, trying to collect sales tax from NH companies for things sold to MA residents.

Screw Massachusetts. These assholes are blatantly phishing for money.

Bob, I know we're all really busy trying to put food on the table, but the *only* way to deal with this, IMHO, is to gather up your paperwork, and make the trek down to your local IRS branch office. Sure, it's going to eat into your work day and it sucks, but it will suck less than other alternatives.

About 10 years ago, I had tax problems that still make me wake up at night in sweats, and life got a LOT better when I started going in person to the office. The phone staff are ill-informed most of the time, some are outright liars who just say whatever it takes to get you off the line, and none of them has real authority to act, they're just a warm body to dole out information. IMHO, if you call 5 times, you'll get 5 different answers.

If you need to sort this out over multiple visits, try to arrange it so you get the same person. You won't have to get a new person up to speed.

Regarding the personal taxes, I got a letter from the state of Tennessee demanding personal income tax. I've *never* lived in Tennessee and told them so. They had the gall to ask me if I was SURE I'd never lived there. Like you said, it's phishing.

I second the personal visit to the local office. about 15 years ago I was jammed up for a few reasons and my accountant was just saying pay it , blah blah. Went into the office and had a very knowledgable and helpful guy spend an hour with me and got everything straightened out, I still owed but not as much. Funny thing is he said when I paid the $ be sure to bring a check since they had no way of accepting cash [like people come in with 5 gallon buckets of cash].

LOL, cash, IRS! That'd be a cold day in hell. Kinda like a mobster shooting a thief in his house with a gun he whacked some dudes with!

So I guess the statement ' This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private' that is on our paper money is no longer true.

I have run into local government agencies that won't accept cash either.

your average government employee cant be trusted with cash. Believe me, its better off that they don't take it.

This sort of thing only going to get worse as state and federal government try to make up budget shortfalls by going over as many old tax returns as they can instead of cutting the pork.

OK this is the UK, but I had similar problems and got no-where, so I called my MP, -parliamentary representative - I don't know whether you'd call your congressman or senator.
Anyway, 6 months of being messed about was sorted out inside a week, complete with concilliatory letter from the Inland Revenue, no further problems since, (but I keep my fingers crossed.)

X2 for contacting your congressman. I have had very good experiences the two times in my life that I really needed help. It's usually not the actual congressman that does the work, but someone from their office. They know that you vote, and your friends and family vote as well, and they also know that news of what they do spreads like wildfire, good or bad.

"...they also wanted my bank account # and routing #..."

Bwa haa haaaaa ha.

Jim

There is a form to submit to have the IRS resolve/rule on tax issues within 90 days.

Our accountant did this for my wife and me. It came back in 45 days with their blessings. Since, I've had kind of a warm and fuzzy feeling about the IRS.

So , you do NOT pay your taxes.
That is very bad

A few yers ago, Arizona wanted me to declare equipment values for taxation on a shop I had moved to New Mexico years before. They absolutely INSISTED that I still had a shop in Benson Arizona, and that I owed them property taxes. Several letters changed hands and they would not back off. Finally, I wrote them;

"If you are quite sure that I am still doing business from a shop in Benson Arizona, this letter serves as your autorization from me to go to that shop, kill all the employees, razz the building, sell off the equipment, and auction the land to cover whatever taxes I owe."

Never heard any more from them......Joe

You have a identity thief that is/was working under your name and/or SS#.

This was real common her in Calif during the construction booms. Out of state workers would come to Calif and work jobs under someone elses identy and list maximum number of dependents so little was taken out of there income in taxes.
Then when the job was over they would leave the state and disappear leaving the real person holding the bag for taxes.
The state would send a tax bill to the address of the SS# holder that they got from the feds wanting there tax money.

I've been getting a letter for my small excavating business from a local very small city near me, (Washington, PA) which reads exactly:

Dear small business owner, we regret to inform you of a recent decision by the supreme court which was a devastating blow for small business operating locations inside a jurisdiction such as a construction job site where long term placement has been set up, such as trailers or portable offices, where they have a substantial location inside the city of Washington for an extended period of time, is now subject to the business privlidge tax of the jurisdiction where they have set up, although the home office of the business may not be located in the city of Washington, PA.
Please be advised that all contractors and/or businesses which does business in the city of Washington, PA must now have a yearly Mercantile License, please submit this application along with your yearly Contractor's License, with an additional fee of $100.

NOT ONLY DO THEY WANT THE TAX WHICH THEY THINK THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO COLLECT BUT REALLY THEY CAN'T EVEN UNDERSTAND THE VERDICT, BUT THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE A LICENSE TO PAY THE TAX, WHICH IS $100. HOW BAD IS THAT?

I called them, all I had was a freakin Bobcat and Excavator, and I did about $500 worth of work each year in the years past, (I havent done any work in Washington for at least 2 years, back then I installed above ground swimming pools)

They want the $100 fee for 2008, and 2009. Plus want a tax return, and also want to audit me. I told them politely to get lost. This is after calling them first, I talked to them about 5 times.
First of all, they are WRONG about the supreme court verdict. ITS FOR PLACES WITH CONSTRUCTION SITE TRAILERS AND THINGS LIKE THAT, like a company thats in there for a year building things, and a big project. Not a guy who shows up with a bobcat and is there for 2 hours, if you read the verdict is must show proof that they had a location there, even a tempory location. A truck sitting in a driveway for 3 hours is NOT what they were talking about.
http://pittsburgh.bizjournals.com/pi...11/story9.html

AND WHAT TYPE OF PIN HEAD ASS sends a letter saying that it is "a devastating blow to small businesses" and then tries to collect the tax. They want $200, plus a $50 fine for not having the license in 2008 (which I did no work there anyway, even though they are complete idiots and cannot read the law) and then want me to come in with all records for an audit. I told them I dont have any records because I did not do any work there!!!! They said I need records to prove I dont owe it, I said if I didnt do anything, what the hell kind of records do you need!
Then I said F it, I said take me to court over it if you have a problem. Got a bunch more letters, then phone calls from the local tax collecting company Centax too, saying I owe like $1000 for estimated work in the city plus fines, etc. F them too. This is the first time I have called a lawyer for anything like that. He suggests that I file a suit against them for time lost and monetary damages for time spent on this plus other things, he said he wants it to be for $25,000 so it goes to some higher court or something. He said I will never collect, but it will get attention and make the paper and make them look like idiots, and everyone else they are screwing over may get help too.

I am getting real sick of tax collectors, those greedy pieces of Sh** do NOTHING but have fun ripping people off.

And that Centax too, I paid them my local tax in 2005 as I do every year, and they sent me a letter the other day saying it was never paid. I ALWAYS pay on time, every year, with my full return, and the problem is that I have no proof that I paid. I KNOW I paid, I have the check number written down on what I sent in. But the problem is, the bank I used back then is gone so I cant get a copy of the check, and they don't give a receipt when you send money in. How am I supposed to prove it?

The IRS never bothers me at least yet, its the local places that don't even know what the hell they are doing.

This country is going to hell, something better change or normal people like us just trying to do business are going to flip the hell out and start going nuts.
They wonder why business moves to China. Because its a royal pain in the ass to do anything here! I spend more time and money on taxes than anything as far as paperwork. Its getting to be such a pain in the ass. The worst part is that Centax is a BUSINESS, NOT THE GOVERNMENT, AND THEY ARE MAKING A PROFIT FROM COLLECTING TAXES. Its the most F'd up system I have seen in a long time.

The economy is driving a lot of this, Gov't agency are looking for any way possible to raise extra money to cover budget cuts.

The city where I live had a major flood in the late 90's, so the Corp Engineers came in and rebuilt the dikes around the river in 2002. Seven years later and now the Corp has told the city there was a billing error and the city owes an additional $85,000. I suspect that the Corp was auditing past projects in hopes of finding a way to raise money.

Qualitymachinetools,
Wow that is some story! I know my local bank (credit union) has been photocopying cheques for the past few years, as cheques are no longer returned to the issuer, but at least there is a summary of the photos attached to each month's bank statement. Did your bank not have such a routine in place? If not, I'd be raising hell and demanding my cheques back.

God I hate taxes, update on our latest $1000 fine. The first letter said we had not paid SS tax on $10k in wages. Got somebody on the phone, she sent us the "account transcript" which shows we actually paid $2600 in SS taxes in 2006 and says we owe zero. Pull out the 2006 taxes and our records show that we did not pay ANY wages and paid no SS tax on ZERO dollars in wages. It seems that some wrong #s were definitely typed into a computer somewhere and possibly they were entered wrong several times.

We just need to send an amended form(identical to the first form apparently), still a PIA though.

We received a warning letter from the Ark Dept of Finance about a scam going on in California.

There is a company in California that is sending out letters that say you haven't been turning in your corporate minutes to the State. You are being fined $125. The forms are official looking ,too.

Here is a link to the warning:

http://yfrog.com/e9fraud1j

I'm not saying that you guys are being scammed. It is just plain old gov't rip off.

JAckal

Huflungdung, the problem is that they keep the check copies for 3 years, then they are gone. I think thats all they are required by law to keep them if even that long, but that bank is gone anyway.
You'd think that 4 years later you wouldnt need to prove that you paid anything.
I thought the law was they can only audit you 3 years back anyway, isnt there some sort of limit on that? I just got the notice about 2 weeks ago for 2005, which would be due APril 15th 2006, which is more than 3 years ago now anyway.

California had (still has?) a nice money maker.

We had an overpayment of estimated income taxes from several years back on income earned in that state. The deadline for applying to get the money was a month off.

To collect this required getting and filling out a couple of obscure forms. Not worth having the Seattle accountant do it for four hundred bucks.

To top it off, they said payment would be in the form of an IOU. This was about the same day banks announced they would not honor California IOU's.

I let them keep the money.