| For more than a year the state of Louisiana has been trying to tell me i owe and undisclosed amount of back tax money to them for a year i never lived in Louisiana. I’ve been out of the country for most of it but intermittently try to provide them with proof of the negative. Quite the existential activity to prove where i wasn’t… finally an agent gave me examples of the different things i could provide. I faxed all of them to the office and was informed it would be about six weeks to process.Fast-forward less than six weeks later but more than one, and i was informed that i owed $2,984.70 by a letter from a collection agency. Imagine my surprise (and chagrin) that i was given 10 days to “settle this obligation voluntarily”. Of course it arrived on Saturday so i couldn’t do anything all weekend except worry.
Monday afternoon i settled into the couch and was caller number 22 to the state of Louisiana department of revenue. I listened to the announcements loop – including a piece about how convenient it is to use their online tools. Finally connected, an agent pulled up my file, opened my documents and confirmed that i didn’t owe them any money. Hooray! Only when i called the collection agency the agent informed, with an edge of “this is a much bigger problem than you think” in his voice, that some major meeting pertaining to my account was happing on the 25th and since i didn’t have a confirmation number that could prove problematic. This time i was caller number six, but it took longer because i was waiting for the collections department. That agent informed me that all was well and they would handle what needed to be handled and pass that information on to mr “big meeting on the 25th. I guess i’ll see. At least it is one less thing for me to worry about- i don’t really have the time for it- all my brain power is concentrated on finding gainful employment. Le sigh. |
Tags: money, neworleans