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Indiana is at it again

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LdiJ

Senior Member
Just venting....

Indiana has come up with a totally new way to confuse, scare and pester taxpayers. I have had two people come into our offices all upset about a letter that they got from Indiana saying that they owe huge amount of tax. In both cases the taxpayers did not file tax returns because they had no taxable income. One taxpayer is receiving Social Security benefits only, and the other one is receiving Social Security benefits and VA benefits. Therefore neither one of them have any taxable income and neither one of them have to file a tax return. Indiana doesn't tax Social Security at all, not even the way the feds do it. The numbers that they used were totally made up. They had absolutely nothing to base the numbers on.

Both clients called the Indiana Department of Revenue before coming to see me and both of them were told that they had to file a tax return whether they had taxable income or not...ARG!

So I had to write letters for them explaining that they had no taxable income. I cited the INDOR's own website where they carefully explain who does or doesn't have to file, and their own example. It seems like every six months or so they come up with some new scheme. Many of the taxpayers are actually so scared that they go ahead and pay whatever INDOR says that they owe, even when they clearly do not owe it. Dealing with Indiana is one of the more frustrating parts of my job.
 


Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
Indiana isn't the only one that has tried obnoxious and even abusive sorts of tactics to try to raise more money. Yet these same state tax officials often bristle when I unfavorably compare them to the IRS. For all its faults, the IRS doesn't stoop that low to collect tax. The state in which I live now doesn't pull those tricks, but it is notoriously inflexible in the application of its rules. It doesn't bend even when the solution offered is one that would actually benefit the state as well as the taxpayer. The agency seemingly doesn't trust its employees with being able to make even the most simple judgement calls.
 

davew9128

Junior Member
California is similar, and will "estimate" income based on 1098 interest paid or occupational licenses, even if the person isn't working. Went off on an FTB rep on the phone over it, the guy threatened to report me to the State Board of Accountancy, at which I informed him the joke's on him because my license comes from Treasury not the state.
 

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