Got a letter this morning from my payroll company. Legit letter with my personal info, not a scam. It said I owed $3,567 in taxes, $1,165 interest, and $3,493 in penalties for not paying income taxes for the year 2013. For real?!
You'd think that over 7 years, I'd at least get a letter sent but no, never received one. I keep all my finances high and tight. Part in thanks to r/personalfinance's guides years ago.
Welp, called them up and it was a mistake in their system. After thoroughly checking over my 2013 tax documents, contacting my CPA, and talking with the folks at the NC dept. of revenue, everything was solved and it was an incorrect flag that was cooking in the system for 7 years.
After it was all taken care of, I had to ask the guy on the phone how this happened...
A bit of context first tho. In the beginning of 2013, I moved from NC to CA. I didn't set a new primary address in CA until I got some food in my stomach and a roof over my head. I just didn't change my primary resilience from NC to CA as well as didn't cancel my NC drivers license. Once I was stable, I could switch it all over.
But since my info in the system was set for NC, their system thought I was still living there. They thought I was earning income in NC and the system expected taxes to be paid. But in all of 2013, I earn my income in CA. So there was no need to file taxes to NC. But that's what triggered the system. It thought that I skipped on paying taxes.
Also keep in mind, I got this letter from my payroll company, not from the NC Dept of revenue. I don't know where they're sending these letters to, but you'd figure that at some point in the last 7 years, they'd send it to the correct address but no.
But here's the thing that really upsets me. What if my payroll company hadn't forwarded me that letter. What if I hadn't payed attention to it? Or what if it was a smaller amount, where I could pay it and be done with it without checking?
What about other folks who couldn't come up with that kind of money. What about the other people who just lost their jobs or are barely scraping by trying to survive in this pandemic! What about all the other false claims that are sent out their to other folks unsuspecting. That's what pisses me off.
Be diligent with your finances. Keep all your records. Don't let a big scary IRS taxes letter scare you into thinking you owe them something when you actually don't. The tax man can make mistakes and a simple 40 minute call today saved me from paying a false 8k tax claim.
Submitted September 29, 2020 at 09:51PM by cliftonixs https://ift.tt/2HzHD4m
