I'd better get a tax refund this year!!!! (ranty)

[HotelMinion]

This is a long harrowing story. I'll try to sum it up as short as possible though.
Two years ago, I moved from Suburb County to City County. Where I live, car owners are charged taxes every year. I went to the DMV and got my car registered for City County when I moved. Then, both counties started sending me bills for tax. I called Suburb County and told them that I didn't live there anymore, so stop sending me bills. Okay. So next year rolls around.
They (Suburb County) sent me another bill!
Again I told them to stop. THey said okay. And next year after that, same thing!
Finally I had enough. I decided to ignore the bills that they sent me. THen they started sending me threatening letters, saying that I was going to be charged heavy fines if I didn't pay, and that they were going to send collection agencies after me. I wrote them an email.
"I don't live in your county anymore stop sending me bills and threatening letters!!!!" I wrote.
"Sorry, we need a copy of your registeration card to prove that you don't live here anymore," they said.
Fine. I send them a copy, and after much prodding, they say that I'm taken off of their billing list and that if I wanted a refund, I would have to send them a receipt of the payments I had paid to them.
Don't you have the records that I have paid you for the last two years? I ask.
No, you've already been taken off the system, so all your records were erased. Said them.
Argh. Fine. I didn't have the receipt anymore so I let it rest. I have it on email, which I am NEVER deleting, that they won't send me another bill. Oh yeah guess what, they were sending them to my new address in city county, so they KNEW I had moved! THey just wanted to make it difficult for me! Is my theory.
Total monies loss: $500. I better get a tax refund and they better not send me another bill! But we'll see.

[raudf]

I had to have a little chat with our local county tax collector and the auditor about issues of not getting a homestead credit for property taxes. Guess what was wrong? They had my address in the CITY, which doesn't have a road named that at all! So it was my address with the city and city zip code. I found out and took my DL and a utility bill down there to them. Got it sorted.. sorta. They lost the paperwork. Fortunately, the girl I spoke to decided to dig around on her higher up's desk and found the paperwork.

This year, it appears to be straightened out. And yes, we did get a refund on the amount we'd paid for their goof up.

[rvdammit]

Might want to check with someone with tax knowledge. There's usually a requirement to keep records for 7 years or so.

[MadMike]

When I was still living at home, I got some tax bill that I shouldn't have received. My mom took one look at it and recognized my dad's SS number. I'm a "Junior", so the mixup isn't exactly surprising. So my mom called the tax office and tried to get it straightened out. She went back and forth with the lady who was working there. No matter how many times she explained it, she just wasn't getting it.

Finally, she asked my mom, "Well, is your son still in school?" My mom replied, "He better still be in school! He's only 16!" It finally started to sink in, and the lady told my mom to just throw out the bill, and she'd take it out of the system.

[eltf177]

Total monies loss: $500. I better get a tax refund and they better not send me another bill! But we'll see.

You not only should get a refund but interest as well!

[greek_jester]

Fine. I send them a copy, and after much prodding, they say that I'm taken off of their billing list and that if I wanted a refund, I would have to send them a receipt of the payments I had paid to them.
Don't you have the records that I have paid you for the last two years? I ask.
No, you've already been taken off the system, so all your records were erased. Said them.

OK, I call bullshit. I am uncertain of the exact laws (I'm a Brit) but I'm damned sure that there is legislation in place that ensures records are kept for a certain length of time. I can understand not being able to immediately access an account which is dormant, but there is no way the data would just be erased. Someone just didn't want to have to deal with the fallout of a screw-up like this.

[TheSHAD0W]

OK, I call bullshit. I am uncertain of the exact laws (I'm a Brit) but I'm damned sure that there is legislation in place that ensures records are kept for a certain length of time.

Whether or not they have record-keeping requirements, it's not possible to prove they owe you money if you don't have receipts and they won't turn over the paperwork. You might be able to get them censured, or investigated by the state or the feds, but you'd still be out.

[Gilhelmi]

A minor victory is still a victory.

Definitely look into tax law to see if they were suppose to keep those records.

[Slave to the Phone]

I wouldn't have paid them to start with. That's what I did when I left my home state to move here. I started getting bills from the MVD from old state demanding money to register my vehicle. I'd send them a letter instead of a check pointing out that they had mailed the bill to new state, so they should understand that I didn't live in old state anymore.

After a couple of years, I got tired of it...plus they were threatening to garnishee my pay check, so I finally called someone and politely kept escalating until I spoke to someone who asked that I send them proof on my new address and it would be dropped. When I asked her if copies of the bills sent to my new address would be sufficient, she got really quiet for a while, then did something on her computer and told me to not worry about it and I never got another bill.

[sstabeler]

Whether or not they have record-keeping requirements, it's not possible to prove they owe you money if you don't have receipts and they won't turn over the paperwork. You might be able to get them censured, or investigated by the state or the feds, but you'd still be out.

it depends on how far you're willing to go, actually. ( if you go to court, then they HAVE to turn over the info as part of the discovery process. if they don't, then it is assumed the paperwork backs up what you say ( same deal if it's been destroyed, incidentally- for exactly this reason)

[Kagato]

Don't you just love how when they are in the wrong, they take weeks/months/years to get the issue sorted, but when it is something potentially to their benefit (or at the very least something that will fill the coffers a little), they come chasing after you with torches and pitchforks as soon as possible >_<

[protege]

There's usually a requirement to keep records for 7 years or so.

When I worked at the bank (auditing department), records had to be kept for 7 years. I forget the actual statute, but I do remember seeing "keep for 7 years" on things like tax records, various bills, loan documents, and other things in the warehouse.

[HotelMinion]

I wouldn't have paid them to start with. That's what I did when I left my home state to move here. I started getting bills from the MVD from old state demanding money to register my vehicle. I'd send them a letter instead of a check pointing out that they had mailed the bill to new state, so they should understand that I didn't live in old state anymore.

After a couple of years, I got tired of it...plus they were threatening to garnishee my pay check, so I finally called someone and politely kept escalating until I spoke to someone who asked that I send them proof on my new address and it would be dropped. When I asked her if copies of the bills sent to my new address would be sufficient, she got really quiet for a while, then did something on her computer and told me to not worry about it and I never got another bill.

Just recently, I got a letter in the mail from City Coutny saying that my payment hadn't gone thru and they wanted another. First thing I did was check my statements to see if they were telling the truth. It seems they are. Then I checked my computer to see if I still had the receipt on file. I did.

Now what to do? I have 3 choices:

1. Ignore letter and play dumb.
2. Write City County and explain that Suburb County refused to refund.
3. Be a good citizen and pay up (again).

If I do 1, they'll send collection agencies or whatever and I do NOT want that!
If I do 2, they'll tell me to ask Suburb County for my refund. Even tho I already did, they'll still tell me to!
3 really rubs me raw tho. If it were a store or a business, then I wouldn't do it. But it's the government! Big, bad, and powerful....feels like a dystopian novel :/ a really bad novel...

I'll ask for my family and friends' advice, but they'll probably be mixed advice.

[Ironclad Alibi]

A fourth choice is to write a letters to all of your congressmen complaining about the situation. Petition them to look into and resolve the matter for you. I have had good luck doing this.

[protege]

Petition them to look into and resolve the matter for you. I have had good luck doing this.

Me too. I've also found that you don't even have to actually do it. In some cases, the mere *threat* of going to your local representative is enough. People don't like being called out on their mistakes--especially if the representative is well-known, and can make trouble for them.

For example, I had to get the title changed on my project car. Here in PA, that's handled at the Triple-A office. I had all the paperwork, the required vehicle photos, but because the windows were down, the person helping me with the title swap...didn't want to process the swap because of some bullshit "regulation." Seems that a minor rust spot on the bumper and the windows being down in the photo...were enough to hold up the paperwork. Pissed off, I said that if it got held up, I'd go to my local representative's office, which was right down the street. Simply mentioning the guy's name was enough to get it taken care of.