Thursday, July 11, 2013

Somebody Is Trying To Steal Our Money!

I say "somebody" because it happens to be a department of the government, and I don't need them flagging me for airing their dirty laundry. Let's refer to them as the "Check Eaters". You know, the ones that take most of your pay before you even see your check?



Now I accept the fact that they eat our checks. We elected all the fools that put us in this economic spot, so there is no way around it at this juncture. What I can't accept, is when the Check Eaters try to steal from soldiers and their families. Allow me to explain...

When a soldier deploys, the money that they make during their deployment is tax free as a little perk for putting their lives on the line. Fair enough? So we did our taxes this year, got a little money back and were happy as a lark. Then all of a sudden, the Check Eaters in Virginia (our home of residence) decided that we should be taxed on a portion of the money Will made while he was deployed. Now I could see this as a mistake if they tried to tax him on all of the income, but how does a trained Check Eater look at a soldiers W-2, see income that is non-taxable, and decide that he should pay taxes on a portion of that. He's all like, "For shits and giggles, let's see if these suckers will pay this."

Um...no.

So what did we do? We called and explained ourselves to Check Eaters that acted like they had never come across a situation like this. They had no clue that we shouldn't be taxed or so they said, made us send them his W-2 again, and said they would review it. Cue to a few weeks later and we got ANOTHER letter saying that we owed the money PLUS penalties.

Um...what?

We called AGAIN. This time, they searched their office for his W-2, and found that it had not been "reviewed" yet. So let's get this straight...

1) They don't know how to do their jobs.
2) They just tell people they owe random amounts of money.
3) They assess penalties when they are the ones that are too busy to review W-2's.

We are pretty sure that they are going to review it and we will be off the hook, but think about how many times the Check Eaters tell people they owe money after they have already filed, and how many people just pay it because they assume that a Government Agency would not try to screw you.

Moral of the story:
ALWAYS second guess it when someone tells you that you owe money after the fact. Especially when that someone is a "Check Eater". It could save you hundreds of dollars. You're welcome.


9 comments:

Mallory said...

Good for yall! DLW had to pay vehicle property taxes to Virginia for years before they finally refunded him because this isn't his home state. Silly, Check Eaters.

Courtney B said...

Oooooh there is nothing I hate more than greedy (but I don't know why they are greedy when the money doesn't even benefit them?) check eaters! Ew! Good for you guys for fighting it!

Megan Wadsworth said...

SO frustrating!!! I've been trying to get B to change his home of record for forever now... he still has it as California (which was his residence when he entered West Point at 18), so he pays state tax to them all year long just for us to have to do a shit ton of tax paperwork for state tax revenue that isn't earned in said state and get it all back each year. Even though his drivers license is from Texas (my home state) that has ZERO state income tax, he just keeps forgetting... which is fine until it's time to do the taxes again... ugh!

Have y'all thought about doing something like that? Changing your state home of record to one without state income tax?

Kristine -Heart Shaped Sweat said...

ouch! keep at it and stay on top of this!! Virginia must be notorious for this kind of thing, we too have had this problem-o before...

Jamie said...

So frustrating.

Kim S said...

I never had an issue with them when I was on my own, but ever since Leo and I got married, those check eaters have been out for blood. It's not quite the same situation, but I know the frustration of dealing with them too well

Cece @Mahogany Drive said...

I HATE taxes and I can't believe they tried to get you to pay up what you don't owe. The nerve. Glad you are standing your ground.

Unknown said...

I went through a very similar situation earlier this year. I got a letter saying I owed $2,500 from two years ago because I wasn't in school and used the education credit that was offered. The only problem is I was in school and sent in all my required information 2 years prior. Needless to say when you're dealing with the IRS the process is 10 times longer than it ever should be. After 4 months, 3 penalty letters and 7 hour long conversations (you know, because you have to wait on hold for a million hours) it all got resolved and I owed nothing.

I know it's a pain in the butt but you did nothing wrong so I wouldn't be too worried. It's just a matter of teaching these people how to do their own jobs ;)

Nikki said...

This sounds like a frustrating and annoying situation! Good for you for sticking it out and getting to the bottom of it - I'm sure they just rely on people not doing that and paying the fees anyways. UGH. Thank you so much for stopping by my blog! :)
xoxo,
Nikki at www.bedazzlesafterdark.com

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