Garnishment stopped but they are keeping the refunds

[melabernathy]

Minnesota
I will try to make this as short and simple as possible....
The matter that I am about to describe is for my sister's fiance and I am just trying to help them out.

Let's call the fiance Bob. Bob is 40, divorced with 3 kids, 2 kids that he has full custody of.
Since my sister met him he has had garnishments taken from his paycheck for a car that his ex-wife sold behind his back with out paying off the loan and a garnishment for taxes. His mom always did his taxes and he got audited a few years ago and found that they were not done correctly. (This is what he's told my sister these garnishments were for anyway) The tax garnishment stopped earlier last year. He was waiting for his stimulus check and instead got a letter in the mail stating that they kept it to pay off his back taxes and he got a check for only $150 but it had both his name and his ex-wife's name on it so he couldn't even cash it and they file seperately so why were both names on the check? If he still owed back taxes then why did they stop the garnishment? So they called the IRS to ask what he still owes and they said he was all paid up now.
Well, just 2 days ago he gets a letter in the mail stating that he will not be getting his state refund and $400 less on his federal due to back taxes and medical bills. So they called the IRS again. According to them they only got $7.00 from the stimulus check and the rest had gone to the medical bills that's why they are keeping this to pay off his tax debt. Bob says that he's never even been to the hospital that they are paying. His mom passed away in January 2008 and he's wondering if they are billing him for that. His brother has power of attorney so wouldn't he be liable for the bill? Bob has been trying to get a hold of the hospital to find out what the bills are for and so far can't get ahold of anyone so right now he can only speculate what they are for.

So, I guess the legal question here is what can he do? He's been told that his tax debt was taken care of last year and now they kept his money again. They won't send him a statement and they should have been able to tell him that his tax burden was paid off but you also have these medical bills that will be taken out as well right? These bills are not on his credit report and they have never seen a bill at their house for them either.

 

[LdiJ]

Minnesota
I will try to make this as short and simple as possible....
The matter that I am about to describe is for my sister's fiance and I am just trying to help them out.

Let's call the fiance Bob. Bob is 40, divorced with 3 kids, 2 kids that he has full custody of.
Since my sister met him he has had garnishments taken from his paycheck for a car that his ex-wife sold behind his back with out paying off the loan and a garnishment for taxes. His mom always did his taxes and he got audited a few years ago and found that they were not done correctly. (This is what he's told my sister these garnishments were for anyway) The tax garnishment stopped earlier last year. He was waiting for his stimulus check and instead got a letter in the mail stating that they kept it to pay off his back taxes and he got a check for only $150 but it had both his name and his ex-wife's name on it so he couldn't even cash it and they file seperately so why were both names on the check? If he still owed back taxes then why did they stop the garnishment? So they called the IRS to ask what he still owes and they said he was all paid up now.
Well, just 2 days ago he gets a letter in the mail stating that he will not be getting his state refund and $400 less on his federal due to back taxes and medical bills. So they called the IRS again. According to them they only got $7.00 from the stimulus check and the rest had gone to the medical bills that's why they are keeping this to pay off his tax debt. Bob says that he's never even been to the hospital that they are paying. His mom passed away in January 2008 and he's wondering if they are billing him for that. His brother has power of attorney so wouldn't he be liable for the bill? Bob has been trying to get a hold of the hospital to find out what the bills are for and so far can't get ahold of anyone so right now he can only speculate what they are for.

So, I guess the legal question here is what can he do? He's been told that his tax debt was taken care of last year and now they kept his money again. They won't send him a statement and they should have been able to tell him that his tax burden was paid off but you also have these medical bills that will be taken out as well right? These bills are not on his credit report and they have never seen a bill at their house for them either.

Your brother is really dealing with two completely separate issues.

The federal government had a garnishment in place for back taxes.

There is a separate garnishment in place for medical bills...which has to be some kind of government debt, not merely a debt to a hospital, because non-governmental organizations cannot garnish a federal tax return.

 

[melabernathy]

The way that I understand it from the IRS website is that your state refund can be used towards any state run debts. Aparently this meidcal bill has a state tie to it and that's how they can keep his state refund for that purpose. I don't know how they can keep the stimulus for it because that was federaly issued check not state. But the money they are taking out of the federal refund now is to pay off the back taxes that they claim he still owes even after they confirmed with the IRS early last year that it was all taken care of.

 

[davew128]

What did IRS collections tell Bob when he called them for the specific details on who took the check and why?

Anything else is idle speculation.