Collection agencies and Taxes

Hi folks I'll try to make this fairly short.

In 2000, My wife and I moved to Florida after living in Colorado for

25 years. In 2001 we decided to use her 401k $ to purchase some property for this house we had always talked about building. I filed My 2001 taxes and paid the penalty and taxes owed on the balance of the 401k which we took out......and forgot about it.

We never heard another word from anyone about any taxes owed form that time frame. NOTHING not a letter of notice. We built our house and have lived at the same address now for several years. We are easy to locate.

Fast forward to November 2008

I came home from work one evening and my wife was extremely upset, She told me that someone had called from the Colorado Dept of Revenue about taxes she did not pay in 2001 demasnding that she pay the balance owed immediately. She told them she had to talk to me as I handle the taxes but they insisted that it was her responsibility and she had to send them a check immediately. They gave her 24 hours There lies the implied threat.

Anyway I called them back and they don't even answer the phone by the name of their company. I got a guy on the phone and we finally got to the bottom of the matter which is that they are a collection agency Integral Recoveries. I told the guy we would not be paying anything at all without proof from the State of Colorado that the taxes were indeed owed by my wife. He would not or could not tell me anything at all about the alleged taxes. I told him I need it in writing and I also need validation of the taxes. End of conversation.

About a week later I recieved a form letter from them with the amount owed, my wifes social security # a statement that since we have failed to cooperate we have forced to moved the account to its current status...another implied threat.

I got to thinking what could be causing all this and realized that they could very well be right. When I filed my taxes for 2001 I did it with tax preparation software. One of the first questions it asks is do you need pay state taxes for the state you live in. I clicked no (there is no Florida state tax). The program promptly forgot about state taxes after that point. However, I'm thinking that they may have been a tax liability to the state of Colorado for the withdrawl of my wifes 401k.

If so, It makes me really wonder why did the State of Colorado never, ever send out a delinquent notice for these taxes. Had I received one, the taxes would have been paid immediately,

Am I right in requestiung further validation of these taxes that are so old? Can a collection agency go after my wife, garnish her wages, levy her/our assets, etc, etc? Would they not have to file suit against her here in Florida first?

I'm also preparing a letter to the Colorado Department of Revenue, but am hesitant in sending it. I feel it should be up to the collection agency to provide this information. After all the Colorado Dept of Revenue did not seem too concerned about this matter for 7 years.

I checked with their website and their is no SOL for unfiled or fraudulent taxes returns

Thanks for listening

Phil

Reply to
Capri
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Verify this information with CO-DOR.

This is the root cause of the problem......

Your probably correct.....

They probably did, to the last known address, if you failed to file a final return from your new location, they would have had difficulty locating her. These letters all went to your old location, if they were sent after teh USPS forwarding order had expired, they were returned to CO-DOR, and filed with the assessment papers as UD (Undeliverable Mail).

They assessed the liability by default.

I am not saying it's impossible to skip trace with all of todays comuter & database technology, but the DOR was not using the best locator sources it very well could take years to locate a skip.

Several CO_DOR collection letters probably went UD, at which time they bring in the private collectors, to use inovative skip trace tools & techniques.

Deal with the CO-DOR directly to get to the root issues.

Reply to
Taxmanhog

I bet that Colorado doesn't realize you moved. The U.S. Congress put an end to sourcing of pensions from other than the state of residency back in 1996. You shouldn't owe any tax to Colorado for a withdrawl you made while living in Florida.

Tell the collection agency that you will deal only with the state on the matter.

Reply to
D. Stussy

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