Ohio Department of Taxation Ohio Attorney Generals office Ohio Dept. of taxation/Attorney general office intercepting refunds Columbus, Ohio Internet

My wife and I have been working trying to resolve an Ohio department of taxation(ODT) issue for almost a year now.

I received a notice from the Ohio State attorneys office(OAG) explaining an offset (money taken from my federal return) in 04/2014.

I talked to the OAG, who really had not information  except that there was an outstanding debt of $5K, and reffered me to the ODT. Spoke with ODT and they, could not give me any real specifics. Over the next month or so I communicated with ODT and OAG trying to find out  where this debt originated, and finally I was told I that I did not file my taxes in 1997.

I could not find any records from 1997. I moved from Canada in late 1997, and assumed it was just some minor mistake I made the first year filing and it could be rectified easily. Not so, ODT did not have any records either, they could not tell me what I made that year, how much I paid in taxes, if I actually filed etc.. Their answer was to refer me to the IRS to get my tax records, even though the IRS does not have any information regarding State tax withholdings. The IRS explained to me they do not keep records past 10 years (16 in my case)

This is just the beginning of the story....

Somewhere during the process of trying to rectify the situation we receive a letter an attory representing OAG demanding payment of some $12K for unpaid taxes. Upon contacting the attorney we find out that not only is there an outstanding for 1997 but for numerous other years as well, totalling over $28K.  The only real answer we received from the attorney was that it was for unpaid taxes. No specific years, no specific amounts for years just a total.

Over the next few months I worked with ODT trying to figure out what they had and what they did. Long story short I re-submitted my taxes for every year I lived in Ohio in order to clean eveything up.

At the same time the attorney representing OAG required that we submit  everything to them, which we did. During the process always the attorney wanted something else; copies of w2's, copies of irs transcripts for every year, etc., etc., etc., and never once did either ODT, OAG, or the attorney for OAG ever supply any information regarding these questions or regarding the debt.

After a couple months of working on this almost daily the questions and communication from the attorney stops, but in the mean time they are still taking money from returns etc.

Now I know it is not a open and shut case, but we did not owe the IRS money, except for one year in 2001, when my wife did a lot of 1099 work for one company, and the extension is that if you did not owe the IRS you probably do not owe the state. On top of that our returns were normal, simple returns; what we made, and deductions for our children and mortage. Nothing more.

Three months and no communication from ODT, OAG, or OAG's attorney's.

I mistakenly believe that they have all the information they need and that in due time the issue will be resolved.

This weekend I receive a letter from the OAG's attorney, not even certified, giving a final warning that we owe $28K. the same amount they alleged we owed to begin with even though we have had almost $9K in offsets taken from our federal and now NY state taxes, and we have submitted tax returns for every year that we lived in Ohio, and not a single one of them resulted in us owing the ODT any money.

What is going on there!!!!

How can the ODT lose so much information, how can they not know what you paid in taxes every year? How does the OAG go about getting offsets without having any information? Why is the OAG turning tax collection over to a law office that is probably nothing more than a debt purchasing company.

I mention the debt purchasing company because I was informed by one of the ODT representatives that I would owe the initial $5K regardless of whether I owed taxes or not to pay for legal fee's incurred resulting from my allegedly not filing. Which has been supported by my credit report which now shows 3 seperate state tax liens, one for $13K, one for $15K, and one for $5K, and the one for $5K is noted as a contractual obligation, which as I understand means that it is written in stone that you owe this and there is noting you can do about it.

How can OAG simply state we thought you owed us money so we hired a company to get it, and the fact that you do not owe money is irrelevant because we had to pay someone to find that out, and as a result you need to pay us to pay them for the confusion, and by the way we are going to screw up you credit rating while were at it, and and just to make things worse all that money you paid in taxes to the federal/state goverments, that you worked your a** off to make, and are entitiled to get back by law, we are going to take that money and put it in our offers, and once, if ever, we feel satisfied that you do not owes us any money which could take months even years, you will never know, we will give it back to you after we have paid everyone we believe should be paid out of your returns, and have made some money off of your money through investing it with the money of others like you.

I have had audits, and adjustments on my federal taxes, all minor things, math error's etc. and it was all worked out in a relatively short period of time, with a phone call or an amendment to the return. This thing with Ohio has just become a nightmare that won't end.

I am just waiting for them to start taking our paychecks, for what is an alleged obligation, for which I have spent hundreds of hours proving is incorrect.

An understatement, but something needs to be done about this process.

This is not simply a matter of the state ensuring that everyone pays their fair share, this is the state randomly grabbing peoples money, as they do not, and cannot even tell you what your fair share was supposed to be for any given period of time or why they believe you did not pay your fair share.

 The fall of the economy devasted my family, we lost our home, our jobs, and we are finally just at the point where we saved enough to finally purchase a home again, but because of this that dream has been put on hold because now our credit has been destroyed by all these state liens, and who knows what will happen even if we are able to resolve this, will they say it was a mistake and take them off, or will the records stay there for 7-10 years. I am at the point where I have been seriously contemplating paying the total off with our savings for a home to simply end this, in hopes it will restore our credit, and at least then we can pull up our boot straps again and start saving again for a home. Maybe we will get lucky and somewhere down the road it all works out and we could get the money back, but my faith in that outcome is seriously limited.