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Y&R Discussion Group
My mom is 91 years old. We have always taken her taxes to the preparer for her; except for one year. In 2007 (for 2006 taxes.) We asked my sister to take my mom's taxes to the preparer that year. My husband's mother was dying and we had that to deal with.
Last week my mom gets a FINAL NOTICE from the state of Missouri saying that she owes over $4000.00. I don't know why they said final notice, when she never got any other notices. She did move in 2006. I know they only forward your mail for 6 months. Maybe they did send her other notices, but to her old address and they did not get forwarded to her new address.
We called her tax preparer. She said 2006 was the only year that she did not do her taxes. We don't know what happened. My sister says she did take them to her; but the preparer says she never received them. Did my sister really bring them to her and the preparer lost them? Maybe my sister forgot to take them and is lying, saying she did. She can be a scatter brain at times.
Federal has not even caught on to this yet. Can you imagine if she owes the state over $4000.00, what she is going to owe Federal? This is a nightmare. I really don't think that is a problem that my husband and I need to solve; but my sister and mother do not have the "know how" to take care of this. I am not even sure we do.
It didn't occur to my mother to ask my sister if her taxes were done, so she could sign them. Knowing my mother she probably forgot that it was something that had to be done before sending them off.
I am guessing the state is probably not going to give her any kind of break, not matter what we say to them. We don't want my mom to have to pay all of this money when she is probably the one who is least responsible.
We just don't know how to get to the bottom of this.
It's probably just an arbitrary assessment that ain't even based on reality.
In other words, if she didn't file a return for 2006, the state of Missouri doesn't have any idea what her income was supposed to be for that year, or whether or not she's already paid part of the tax with quarterly estimated tax payments. They just assessed some amount that they pulled out of the sky, and which is probably way more than she owes.
You really should call her CPA and set up an appointment with him/her. They can sort of reconstruct her 2006 situation and file a Federal and Missouri return, based on that information. (They can also respond to the letter by saying, "Mrs. G is 91 years old and failed to file her 2006 return. However, we are reconstructing the return and will file it shortly. Please hold this assessment until we have all the information necessary to file an accurate return.")
But for heaven's sake, don't just haul off and pay the $4,000 because it probably ain't even right.
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Keep in mind that I am Canadian and our tax system is different. However, my very good friend had the unpleasant experience of a flooded basement around tax time about 16 years ago.
Short story, the taxes were not sent in due to the forms literally being flooded with raw sewage after a dreadful rainstorm and tornado. He set them aside to dry, planning to stop in and get advice from Revenue Canada as soon as the mess in his life was cleaned up and his family could be allowed to move back into their home. All was forgotten because the cleaners for the insurance compant threw everything out.
Now, fast forward 10 years later. He is still at that house and he suddenly gets a tax bill for $8000. He calls and finds out it is missing taxes. He had to pull his info together for that year and the next two and take it to a Revenue Canada office. In the end, he received a small refund instead, once they collected their due.
Hopefully the state will allow those taxes to be filed now and things will work out in the wash. Perhaps the 4000. is based on estimated undeclared income. Once it is declared, hopefully things will be brighter.
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