Just kidding. If the taxpayer owed the government $20,000, you can be sure they would demand you pay it back with interest.
A tip from Crazymamma:
A St. Clair Illinois couple thought their property taxes were a tad high, paid to have them audited, and discovered they had been paying taxes for their neighbor's garage for the past 18 years. They applied to have the over-payments, amounting to $20,000, refunded.
The government's response was: Are You Crazy?!!!!!!! (RkBall paraphrase)
* Officials from the St. Clair County Assessor's Office and the County Board of Review told the taxpayer that even though the overpayment was caused by an assessing error, it was his fault for not catching it.
Assessor Gordon Bush said, "It would set a bad precedent."
Assessor G. Bush also weighed in saying, "It would result in complications."
Assessor G. B. added, "It would result in problems."
A. Gordon B. quipped, "It would snowball out of control."
Indeed. If governments started paying back money owed to taxpayers, where would it end?!
An Assistant State's Attorney agreed that no refund would be made. Wait for this. Are you ready? "Despite a state law that says five years worth of mistakenly paid taxes can be refunded with the filing of a document called a 'Certificate Of Error.'"
Let me rewind the tape and run that one by you again in case you weren't paying attention.
"An assistant state's attorney agreed that no refund would be made despite a state law that says five years worth of mistakenly paid taxes can be refunded with the filing of a document called a 'Certificate of Error'."
Ah, yes, you say. But what about the Board Of Review Lady? Has the Board Of Review Lady been contacted? Has the Board Of Review Lady weighed-in.
Yes, she has.
"The Board of Review Lady didn't even want to hear about it."
Well, what about Ms. Pat Boze, a Deputy for the Board Who Is Familiar With Investigating Property Errors. What does she have to say?
"She's busy. She doesn't have time to talk to you".
At this point ya better hope the couple involved doesn't work for the US Post Office.
Cue the Rambo theme song. Enter the Good Guy.
State's Attorney Robert "Rambo" Haida said his office instructed the Assessor's Office to file a Certificate of Error and process a refund. "We told them 60 days ago to refund five years, but that didn't get done. We intend to follow the law no matter how much trouble it is".
GFH!
You can read all about it at
http://www.bnd.com/372/story/544580.html
Thanks again to Crazymamma for passing this one on.
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