Ask HN: Self Employed NYers, anyone getting bogus tax bills?

[bowline_nc]

A little venting, but I'm really curious if anyone else out there has had these problems.

I was a self employed consultant in NY for 4-5 years and this is the third time in so many years that NY State has said I did not pay my taxes in years past (when I did pay). The first time, it was a pain but I was scared that I had forgotten to. The second time, I got a little pissed off. This third time, I'm irate and sensing a pattern - it seems like they're just losing my taxes and hoping that I'll pay it again and blindly.

The onus is on me to prove that I paid, so I've had to request old bank records and match up check amounts, numbers, and when they cleared. Even then, I have to spend hours on the phone navigating bureaucracy in order to get this cleared out.

I'm just curious if any other self employed folks have run into this and how they've handled it. It's becoming a yearly pain in the ass at best and pretty damn shady at its worst.

Thanks!

[apaprocki]

Yes, NY seems to place the onus on you so they can attempt to turn up more tax revenue that was not filed by mistake. I moved from PHL to NYC in 2003 and when I filed NY state taxes in 2004, I got a bill for my estimated taxes in 2003 based upon my current income. They assumed that I had lived in NY in 2003 and had not filed any taxes even though it was not the case. I had to send them a copy of my 2003 tax return showing that I was 100% out-of-state and then they dropped it.

If you think about it from a programmer point of view, their system detected me perfectly (whether or not they should be doing this is a separate issue), and once it knew 2004 was the first year I was a state resident, it left me alone. If you are constantly getting these, I'd guess that something is wrong in your computer record, causing it to not see your returns and to keep going after you.

[bowline_nc]

Yeah, I knew there was something wrong with my record, but was assured last year that it was corrected (for a second time). With a third instance, I just wanted to make sure that I was the only one.

[ehsanu1]

Sounds like filing away some documentation when you do your taxes would be a simple solution to this annoying problem. But I'm not self employed, so what do I know.