The State of New Mexico - a bunch of crooks

SkyHog

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Everything Offends Me
This was actually more fun than it should have been. In 2007, I neglected to file a tax return for the state of New Mexico because I had determined that year that I would get a refund for like $5. It was not worth my time to even bother.

Well, last year, the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department told me I was going to be audited for failure to file. I spoke on the phone with the gentleman and explained why I did not file, and he told me he would drop it.

A few months ago, I received notice that the state had performed an audit and had completed their investigation and determined that I owed them $469 in taxes, plus a late payment fee and interest for the last 4 years. Oh, and on top of that, there was an amnesty program running last year for 2007, and had I admitted fault, they would have waived any penalties and let it go. But - remember, last year, I was told that there was no problem and I was good to go. They had no record of that.

Well, unfortunately, I don't have records from 2007. 2007 was a wacky year, I moved to Lake Havasu City on 1/1/2007, and moved back to Albuquerque on 7/31/2007. I was also 24 years old at that time, so I certainly lacked the good knowledge to keep records. So I had the pleasure of trying to find as much information as I could to prove my innocence.

Step 1 - Call NM TRD and explain that most of my income was not made in New Mexico that year. Their response: "You had 30 days to comply from the date in the letter. No exceptions." I think that first lady called me a deadbeat too. Awesome.

Step 2 - Find my W2 from Arizona. I thought this was going to be the hard part, but it turns out my old employer (whom many of you know) was VERY helpful in getting this information to be quickly. Yeehaw.

Step 3 - Get information from the IRS to show total income.

Step 4 - Get my W2 from employer for the remainder of the year. This was the longest part of the process.


Ok - so I got that information, called NM TRD and explained that I was getting the information as quickly as I could, and would they please allow me the time to build a defense? "No. And, you must get your official response to us in the next 3 days or you will have admitted guilt." WHAT??

Ok - so I had to take the first step - officially fighting their ruling. At this point, I had a lot of information, but not enough to fax to their call center to prove my innocence. I should note - they repeatedly told me that they showed that I had paid $0 in taxes to the state of New Mexico.

I drafted the following letter:
Dear Ms. Padilla:

I received a letter and subsequent phone calls about a failure to file a New Mexico State Tax Return for 2007. I am in the middle of collecting more information about this matter, but I wanted to present what information I currently have to show good faith in trying to comply.

Unfortunately, since I no longer live in New Mexico, it is difficult to gather the required information as quickly as you are asking. I have, however, collected the following information:

My total income for 2007 was $29,335.00. I lived in Lake Havasu City, AZ from January 1st through July 20th. During this time, I earned a total of $16,857.81 in Arizona income. I have attached my W2 from this timeframe to show this total. I do not yet have the W2 from the remaining 4 months of income, earned in New Mexico, but using deductive reasoning, it stands to assume that I earned a total of $12,477.19 in New Mexico between August and December. This works out to 57% of my income being earned in Arizona and 43% of my income being earned in New Mexico for 2007.

According to my 2007 1040, I had an Adjusted Gross Income of $25,623.00. I have attached two statements from the IRS showing this total amount. Again, using deductive reasoning above, my taxable income for New Mexico in 2007 would have been $11,017.89 ($25,623 * 43%).
According to the income tax rate for 2007 in New Mexico, this would be a total taxable liability of $270.34 ($269.50 + ($17.89 * 4.7%)).

The question comes down to the W2 I am awaiting from my employer, T-Mobile, for the remaining time period I worked in New Mexico. I know that I had state tax withheld from my paycheck, but I do not know how much. I hope that you may have this information, but I will follow up when I get this information as soon as possible. It is my suspicion that New Mexico actually owes me a refund (which is why I did not submit my taxes that year to begin with), but I do not intend to collect it.

I have been asked to provide a copy of my Arizona State tax return, but I cannot supply this as I am not sure if I filed one in 2007. This is, in fact, an oversight, but not one that falls within the jurisdiction of New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department. I hope that the evidence I am providing now, along with the additional information I am awaiting from T-Mobile will show that the taxable liability for 2007 is much less than your records are showing.

Please contact me to let me know if there is anything I can do to further assist in this matter.

I then received a phone call that said my letter and the accompanying proof was not enough to establish that I did not owe them the money that they claimed I owed. I was also told, on this call, that they would be placing a lean against anything they could within a month, and my time had expired to continue fighting the matter, since I had not provided proof that countered their evidence that I had not paid any tax to the state in 2007.


Today, I received my W2 from T-Mobile. Guess how much tax I paid to the state of NM in 2007... $474. Those sneaky bastards - they had to know that, because it was already paid to them. They're trying to extort more money from me, and guessing from the income level at the time, I presume they thought I was stupid enough to roll over.


So I drafted another letter and mailed it today:


Dear Ms. Padilla:

This is a follow up to a previous letter I have sent along to New Mexico TRD.

Please see attached, my W2 from T-Mobile – the sole source of income from New Mexico for the year 2007. This is a follow up to the previous letter I sent last week. I used deductive reasoning to assume I earned a total of $12,477.19. It turns out I actually earned a total of $12,477.40. This means my previous estimate of $270.34 of taxes due to the state of New Mexico, based upon my Adjusted Gross Income, is correct, and is the amount that would be due to New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department.

But – as you can see on the W2 I am attaching, I have paid $473.57. That means I have overpaid taxes and am actually due a refund. For the record, you claim I owe $469, which happens to be less than the money you have already been paid.

I presume this means at this point that the State of New Mexico will be dropping this frivolous, meritless harassment immediately. The State of New Mexico should keep better records, as you had already been paid more than you were asking me to pay to begin with. It is unacceptable to claim that you have “completed an investigation” into a matter in which had you even taken a look at the information you already had in your possession; you could have seen that you had already been overpaid.

Your extortion attempt is predictable and very telling. Please let me know what the next step is to avoid continued harassment.
I believe we are at check mate. I don't know what their next move will be, but I hope at this point that they will realize they can't bully me into paying more money.


Sigh.
 
I think that you were doing pretty well, until you got to those last two paragraphs.

My daughter had a similar thing happen to her with the Iowa income tax. She was an Iowa resident, but she worked in Illinois and Louisiana all during the same year. I don't remember the particulars, but she got a similar letter. She had gotten her taxes done by H&R Block. She took the letter to them, they filed some paperwork, and she ended up getting some money back. So who knows? You might get something back as well.
 
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Isn't dealing with bureaucracy fun?

Too bad NM picked on someone experienced in doing just that, a pilot.

 
At face value they owe you a refund.. The sticking point will be any fees / penalties they assess you for not filing in 2007... :confused:
 
What? You're a rich pilot, and you should be paying more. No ifs, ands, or buts, please.

The audacity, to actually question your Ruling Class! I can't believe you would actually post something like this in a public forum...

(Good job, BTW...)
 
After I moved out of Massachusetts they sent me a notice claiming I had underpaid my state income tax, but there was no explanation of why they thought I owed the money. I reviewed my tax form and it looked correct to me, so I wrote them back, saying "My tax return was correct as filed. Please explain why you think I owe this money." No response, except later I got another notice, again with no justification for the claimed amount, so I wrote them again and said the same thing. I haven't heard from them since. This was probably thirty years ago.

I figured that if they weren't willing to provide a justification for their claim, to heck with them. I figured they probably weren't going to come to California to get me.
 
Your first mistake was trusting an undocumented phone call that all was clear. No letter received verifying the call and "we will drop it", then it did not happen.

Always in writing, and always a signed receipt that any snail mail was delivered.

And the last part of your second letter will only get their hackles up and not let you off.
 
And the last part of your second letter will only get their hackles up and not let you off.

But that's just it - let me off of what? I've over paid. I did not file taxes, that much is true, but it was to NM's benefit that I did not. Their claim that I did not pay any taxes on my income is wrong.

And the important point that they will try to avoid is that they have the ability to know that I paid those taxes - they receive the money every 2 weeks, right? They have my SSN, right? How can they not know that?
 
The next election, everyone will vote for their favorite incumbent and nothing will change, the bureaucracies will continue to grow, along with their insatiable thirst for more revenue, so they can keep growing.

It's what we want.

John
 
Montana thought I owed them tax after selling a home for what I bought it. I pointed out their, errr, umm, stupidity, and never heard from them again.

In general, Montana tax laws are about as bad as it gets (in my experience). They require payment based on total income, not just income earned in state for partial year filings. It's horrible when you consider that I couldn't earn as much when in Montana as I could while living outside Montana. Obviously they think they should benefit from better economies than they provide.
 
In your own determination you thought not paying the $5 in 2007 was not worth it? How is that working out for you now?
 
But that's just it - let me off of what? I've over paid. I did not file taxes, that much is true, but it was to NM's benefit that I did not. Their claim that I did not pay any taxes on my income is wrong.

And the important point that they will try to avoid is that they have the ability to know that I paid those taxes - they receive the money every 2 weeks, right? They have my SSN, right? How can they not know that?

I believe NM requires you to file a tax return if you had any in-state income at all. Until you file your taxes and sign on the dotted line under penalty of perjury all the stuff about who owes what to whom is just small talk. You can only put this to rest by filing the tax forms. I will bet that the case will be dropped when the forms are filed. If you can't get all the exact information, just do the best you can. The longer you delay filing, the longer the case is going to stay open.

Putting it in a pilot's language, it is like an FAA inspector asking you to prove your recency experience. You can't argue that since you fly every day you obviously must meet all the requirements. The issue won't get resolved until you produce the logbook entries that satisfy the requirements.
 
Here's a piece of friendly advice: I have no idea of the answer, but look into whether NM has a limitation on how long it has to initiate an audit.

Also, look at whether the notice you received complies with what, if anything, is required by NM law.

You'll probably have to look at both statutory law and administrative regulations.

I don't have any idea if there's anything there or not, but it would be worth a look.

Hope it works out for you.
 
In your own determination you thought not paying the $5 in 2007 was not worth it? How is that working out for you now?

Well, really he thought it wasn't worth his time and the $5 check he'd get to file his taxes. However, it seems the issue was that he didn't file taxes when the law said "You file taxes, even if we owe you money and you don't want it."

However, now he's spent more time, and probably more than $5 to prove that he didn't owe them $400+. So, it seems the answer is "not well."
 
But that's just it - let me off of what? I've over paid. I did not file taxes, that much is true, but it was to NM's benefit that I did not. Their claim that I did not pay any taxes on my income is wrong.

And the important point that they will try to avoid is that they have the ability to know that I paid those taxes - they receive the money every 2 weeks, right? They have my SSN, right? How can they not know that?

They know what they know, they don't know what you know.
They think you owe them $$, they want their $$. They want you to prove them wrong with the proper forms and documents to back them up.

You need to do their work for them. A letter telling them they are wrong and stupid is not enough.
 
it would be nice if innocent until proven guilty applied
Nick admitted guilt in his OP. He stated very clearly that he did not file and did so on purpose.

This was actually more fun than it should have been. In 2007, I neglected to file a tax return for the state of New Mexico because I had determined that year that I would get a refund for like $5. It was not worth my time to even bother.
 
Nick admitted guilt in his OP. He stated very clearly that he did not file and did so on purpose.

Agreed.

Sorry, Nick. This isn't NM being crooks - this is you didn't do what you were supposed to.

So really, this is a reminder to the rest of us to file our taxes.
 
Stupid laws. If you don't want your refund the govt should stfu and not waste how much time and resources on something like this.
 
How is the state supposed to know how much tax you owe until you file your return? How do they know what your deductions are? All they know so far is what was deducted.
 
How is the state supposed to know how much tax you owe until you file your return? How do they know what your deductions are? All they know so far is what was deductedwithheld.
FTFY but yeah, that is all they know and it is up to the person to let them know if there is any other income that had yet to be reported to the state as well as deductions.
 
FTFY but yeah, that is all they know and it is up to the person to let them know if there is any other income that had yet to be reported to the state as well as deductions.

So what is the difference between me saying deducted vs withheld that compelled you to modify someone else's post?
 
How is the state supposed to know how much tax you owe until you file your return? How do they know what your deductions are? All they know so far is what was deducted.

FTFY but yeah, that is all they know and it is up to the person to let them know if there is any other income that had yet to be reported to the state as well as deductions.

The original letter I got from them detailed my income - said specifically that I had earned $29K or so, and then said that I would owe them $469 in taxes, based on that number.

What they failed to note was that I had $473 withheld that year....so yes - they're attempted crooks because they were trying to dupe me out of an additional $469.
 
My Dad (age 90) received a threatening letter that he had jumped an automated tool booth on the Garden State Parkway. Toll $0.25, penalty $25. Accompanying the letter was a photo with a clearly identifiable BMW with a plate matching my Dad's license number. Unfortunately the State of issue was not visible.

I sent them a copy of my Dad's car registration - for a Ford Taurus. Not a Bimmer!

It took six months for them to realize that they were wrong. In that time, my law-abiding father literally had nightmares over this incident. Finally, after the fourth person on the phone said that they would take care of it, it went away. We never got a letter saying "sorry, we're wrong".

A bureaucrat is someone who cuts red tape.... lengthwise!!!

-Skip
 
Stupid laws. If you don't want your refund the govt should stfu and not waste how much time and resources on something like this.
I am 100% sure in this day and age of budget shortfalls and the government needing ALOT of cash to pay their "top heavy" administration, taxes are going to be the # 1 revenue stream..... You can bet this is only going to get worse in regard to intimidating the public to roll over and just pay,,,,, and not complain. :nono::nono::nono:..

Folks....... Fasten your seatbelts and hang on.:yesnod::yesnod:

Ben.
 
I'm pretty sure it's all computerized. If they get a W2 from your employer and you do not file they will eventually catch up. I've found it takes a couple years, however. I've had to straighten out a number of (someone else's) tax filing snafus but I've found that as long as you pay them what you owe in the end that they let it drop.
 
Here's a piece of friendly advice: I have no idea of the answer, but look into whether NM has a limitation on how long it has to initiate an audit.

Also, look at whether the notice you received complies with what, if anything, is required by NM law.

You'll probably have to look at both statutory law and administrative regulations.

I don't have any idea if there's anything there or not, but it would be worth a look.

Hope it works out for you.

In addition to what David said try to figure out if this Mrs. Padilla is an employee of the state of NM or is from a private tax collection agency may or may not be but I think its important to know. Finally remember to let them know that not only did you earn the money in AZ but that at the time you were a resident of AZ as I recall you actually changed your residency.
 
I dunno, if the State of NM owed me $5, I would have filed and gotten my $5 back. :)
 
This was actually more fun than it should have been. In 2007, I neglected to file a tax return for the state of New Mexico because I had determined that year that I would get a refund for like $5. It was not worth my time to even bother.

Well, last year, the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department told me I was going to be audited for failure to file. I spoke on the phone with the gentleman and explained why I did not file, and he told me he would drop it.

A few months ago, I received notice that the state had performed an audit and had completed their investigation and determined that I owed them $469 in taxes, plus a late payment fee and interest for the last 4 years. Oh, and on top of that, there was an amnesty program running last year for 2007, and had I admitted fault, they would have waived any penalties and let it go. But - remember, last year, I was told that there was no problem and I was good to go. They had no record of that.

Well, unfortunately, I don't have records from 2007. 2007 was a wacky year, I moved to Lake Havasu City on 1/1/2007, and moved back to Albuquerque on 7/31/2007. I was also 24 years old at that time, so I certainly lacked the good knowledge to keep records. So I had the pleasure of trying to find as much information as I could to prove my innocence.

Step 1 - Call NM TRD and explain that most of my income was not made in New Mexico that year. Their response: "You had 30 days to comply from the date in the letter. No exceptions." I think that first lady called me a deadbeat too. Awesome.

Step 2 - Find my W2 from Arizona. I thought this was going to be the hard part, but it turns out my old employer (whom many of you know) was VERY helpful in getting this information to be quickly. Yeehaw.

Step 3 - Get information from the IRS to show total income.

Step 4 - Get my W2 from employer for the remainder of the year. This was the longest part of the process.


Ok - so I got that information, called NM TRD and explained that I was getting the information as quickly as I could, and would they please allow me the time to build a defense? "No. And, you must get your official response to us in the next 3 days or you will have admitted guilt." WHAT??

Ok - so I had to take the first step - officially fighting their ruling. At this point, I had a lot of information, but not enough to fax to their call center to prove my innocence. I should note - they repeatedly told me that they showed that I had paid $0 in taxes to the state of New Mexico.

I drafted the following letter:


I then received a phone call that said my letter and the accompanying proof was not enough to establish that I did not owe them the money that they claimed I owed. I was also told, on this call, that they would be placing a lean against anything they could within a month, and my time had expired to continue fighting the matter, since I had not provided proof that countered their evidence that I had not paid any tax to the state in 2007.


Today, I received my W2 from T-Mobile. Guess how much tax I paid to the state of NM in 2007... $474. Those sneaky bastards - they had to know that, because it was already paid to them. They're trying to extort more money from me, and guessing from the income level at the time, I presume they thought I was stupid enough to roll over.


So I drafted another letter and mailed it today:



I believe we are at check mate. I don't know what their next move will be, but I hope at this point that they will realize they can't bully me into paying more money.


Sigh.

I haven't read all the replies but you have to file taxes in MS where I'm from and in MT where I live now, they assume you paid in ZERO until you tell them what you paid in. I don't think they're doing anything sneaky, you were negligent for not filing refund or not. It makes no sense but "that's the way she goes". You have to figure out how much you owe them and tell them how much of it you already paid via payroll deductions, they'll audit you if they suspect you are lying.
 
In addition to what David said try to figure out if this Mrs. Padilla is an employee of the state of NM or is from a private tax collection agency may or may not be but I think its important to know. Finally remember to let them know that not only did you earn the money in AZ but that at the time you were a resident of AZ as I recall you actually changed your residency.

Definitely was a resident, and that is an important point. Thank you.

Ms. Padilla is the Secretary of the Taxation and Revenue Department.
http://www.tax.newmexico.gov/about-us/office-of-the-secretary/pages/about-the-secretary.aspx

About the Secretary - Demesia Padilla, CPA
secretary.png
New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Department Welcomes Demesia Padilla as the New Cabinet Secretary

Governor Susana Martinez has appointed Demesia Padilla to serve as the Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Taxation & Revenue Department.​

A native New Mexican raised in Albuquerque’s South Valley, Ms. Padilla is a certified public accountant with nearly three decades of experience in both private and public sectors. Ms. Padilla attended Rio Grande High School and graduated from the University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management with distinction.
 
If you're like my buddy Mark, that doesn't tell me much about the subject matter ..... :rofl:

You needed to be here 3-4 years ago. It was posted solely because of who posted the picture.
 
Eh. New Mexico. Amateurs. Try dealing with the Colorado DMV sometime. They tried to slam me for $600 in late license plate fees this year.
They. Are. History.
 
The state of California tried to recover taxes from my mother-in-law after she was dead.
 
Did she owe the taxes? I thought that debts passed on to the estate of a decedent.

She would owe taxes if she had income or lived in California. She did neither.

Oh, and I really take exception to the thread title. I don't think tax collectors are crooks. They're just doing the jobs for which we hired them. And I do think it takes a special kind of stupid to not file a tax return, even if it is revenue neutral.
 
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She would owe taxes if she had income or lived in California. She did neither.

Oh, and I really take exception to the thread title. I don't think tax collectors are crooks. They're just doing the jobs for which we hired them. And I do think it takes a special kind of stupid to not file a tax return, even if it is revenue neutral.

Certain places don't require you to file if your owed vs. paid is within a certain amount.
 
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