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It could happen to you too

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Re: It could happen to you too

#51

Post by jessaustin »

HNaTTY wrote: post #43

Similar thing happened to me, but with a much happier outcome. I lived in Iowa, moved to Colorado for a few years, and now I'm back in Iowa. I received a letter that I owed estimated taxes plus interest and penalties and... Ignored it. Then, 6 months later, I got a bill with the email address of the Iowa IRS agent. One friendly email and four days later, her response was: Thank you for your response to the Department…

Yes both Missouri and Hawaii have handled my moves in this fashion. At first they assume you owe them money, but if you provide documentation for where you were living and when then they cancel proceedings with no fuss.

I'm not sure how I was able to escape California without dealing with this, but that was some years ago...

Re: It could happen to you too

#52

Post by chimeracoder »

The title seems ambiguous (and, oddly, does not match the blog post title).

Did Chase bank hand over all Massachusetts assets (all assets in a MA account) to the state, or did they hand over non-Massachusetts assets to the state of Massachusetts? The opening of the article implies the latter, since the account was opened in Illinois, though it's possible that the account qualified as an MA account.

Even if the address on the account is listed as a California address, the account may still be a Massachusetts account (use an MA routing number, etc.).

I'd be very interested to know if Chase handed over assets from an Illinois account to the state of Massachusetts.

Re: It could happen to you too

#53

Post by aliguori »

joedev wrote: post #34

Why does the author keep hounding on "Again, I have not lived in MA or earned income in that state since 2003"? It sounds like MA isn't after anything to do with residency or wage income.

"Again, I hadn't lived there or worked there since 2003, but I did own part of a business that was headquartered in MA, and the state was using this fact to harass me for income tax money."

If you own a business headquarted in MA, aren't you earning income (through the business) in MA?

If you work in a different state (even if you don't live in the state), you still owe income tax for income earned in that state. This is non-resident state income tax.

Pretty sure MA has a reasonable claim here based at least on what the author states.

Re: It could happen to you too

#54

Post by largesse »

chimeracoder wrote: post #52

The title seems ambiguous (and, oddly, does not match the blog post title). Did Chase bank hand over all Massachusetts assets (all assets in a MA account) to the state, or did they hand over non-Massachusetts assets to the state of Massachusetts? The opening of the article implies the latter, since the account was opened in Illinois, though it's possible that the account qualified as an MA account. Even if the addres…

I suspect that there's no such thing as an Illinois or Massachusetts account to Chase. They are all just accounts held by clients who are US citizens.

Re: It could happen to you too

#55

Post by georgeecollins »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #27

Sigh. I understand the angst, tax organizations are the worst. However, a piece of advice. If you file a tax return in a state, and then you leave. Make sure you file a tax return the next year as well but put down zero taxable income. What I have seen states do, is take the last year you filed a return "presume" you made that much in the next year but just "forgot" to file, and then charge you for back taxes. You co…

That is really good advice. This is nothing new. The author seems to attribute it to the times but I had something very similar happen in California about twenty years ago when the state was quite flush.

Whoever didn't warn you that this could happen once there was a lien was giving you bad advice.

I like the suggestion of filing a $0 return because once you get on the radar of the state tax agencies it gets very expensive to get them off your back. As a kid I failed to file because I owed like $20 (but I did file a federal return, which alerted the state). They eventually froze my account and it cost about $1k to settle the matter. At the time that was real money to me.

Re: It could happen to you too

#56

Post by rdouble »

largesse wrote: post #54
chimeracoder wrote: post #52

The title seems ambiguous (and, oddly, does not match the blog post title). Did Chase bank hand over all Massachusetts assets (all assets in a MA account) to the state, or did they hand over non-Massachusetts assets to the state of Massachusetts? The opening of the article implies the latter, since the account was opened in Illinois, though it's possible that the account qualified as an MA account. Even if the addres…

I suspect that there's no such thing as an Illinois or Massachusetts account to Chase. They are all just accounts held by clients who are US citizens.

Bank of America in NYC is a different entity from B of A in California. Same with Wells Fargo. The accounts are geographically tied to the state in which they were opened. Chase is probably set up the same way.

Re: It could happen to you too

#57

Post by tankenmate »

cpressey wrote: post #36
whalesalad wrote: post #26

This happened to my dad recently. All accounts frozen. For $22 in unpaid taxes due to a discrepancy. The funny part is that you can't write them a check for $22 when all of your accounts are frozen. #recursion To everyone who is alarmed by this it actually happens a lot and is not necessarily Chase's fault. A lot of banks do this. Blame the IRS, our large government, and their incessant need to take everything from e…

More specifically: #deadlock

Actually; #livelock

The world doesn't stop because you can't pay your taxes (the fines don't stop either unfortunately!).

Re: It could happen to you too

#58

Post by jmvoodoo »

You may be able to sue the state of MA in CA court. At least one person did this to California after moving to Nevada:

http://www.hgexperts.com/article.asp?id=5410

Granted, it was the state of Nevada, and Nevadans hate taxes and probably loved sticking it to California more than anything. (which is one reason I moved there from CA).

Re: It could happen to you too

#59

Post by andrewfelix »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #27

Sigh. I understand the angst, tax organizations are the worst. However, a piece of advice. If you file a tax return in a state, and then you leave. Make sure you file a tax return the next year as well but put down zero taxable income. What I have seen states do, is take the last year you filed a return "presume" you made that much in the next year but just "forgot" to file, and then charge you for back taxes. You co…

Jeez I thought our tax system was broken. This must happen all the time.

Thankfully Australia's taxation is handled federally.

Re: It could happen to you too

#60

Post by gyardley »

Yeah, been there and done that.

Me: "I didn't live in your state or earn a dime in your state the year you're claiming I owe you thousands of dollars in tax. Shouldn't you have a shred of evidence that I owe you money before you send out a bill? Why should I have to waste my time proving that I don't owe you money, instead of the other way around?"

Minion at the California Franchise Tax Board: "That's just not how it works, sir."

Happened again when I moved from New York to New Jersey, and I fully expect it'll happen again this year, since I moved from New Jersey to Texas.

And people wonder why I moved to Texas.

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