Thursday, July 7, 2011

This is Normal?

You tell me.

One day an indifferently attired individual shows up in your building lobby and tells you you owe thousands of dollars to the State. They may or may not throw a copy of something at you and warn you to pay up before the end of the year (you are so upset you don't recall). You don't read the copy, if you ever had it. You are freaked out.

Before the end of the year you pay thousands to the State.

Apparently not enough!

Then, without having signed for service of any further documents, you find out one day that your bank account is frozen because the State has obtained a tax lien against your assets. By doing so they have also ruined your credit. You are applying to a bank for a line of business credit and are made to look like a liar because you did not know of this tax lien.

You discover that the State has conducted an audit without your knowledge, has determined unilaterally about money owed, posted penalties for it, and gone to court without giving you an opportunity to defend. You pay the additional thousands in order to unfreeze your account.

Your credit is still a mess.

The so-called State Taxpayer Advocate is a jokester who tells you this happens all the time. You hang up on him.

You prepare to write to your congressperson.

But nothing can take away the feeling that you have been abused by the State and have no recourse.

So, is that even halfway normal?