This week has been fairly high-stress for me due to financial pressures, as I try to figure out how to make rent and keep my car on the road and get enough to eat.
I've also been fighting the state of Kansas for some time, but I figured we'd settled back into our normal intractable state of affairs, as Kansas says "You owe us seven thousand dollars" and I say "I don't have seven thousand dollars and even if I did, you're trying to tax me for the money I made when I lived and worked in Maryland." And Kansas's rejoinder is "I don't believe you."
In June of 2003, I moved to Baltimore, Maryland. I worked there for almost two years before finding a job back home in Kansas in 2005. In '07 I decided to finish college, but due to money troubles had to leave that dream behind a year ago. In 2008, the phone calls started.
It was the state of Kansas, pleasant as you like, calling to let me know their files had been updated to note that I had an outstanding balance of $6000. I inquired as to when that balance had occurred, and they told me it was for the tax years 2003, 2004, and 2005. My response was a simple "Yeah, I lived in Maryland during that time," and that seemed to be that.
The following May, I got another call. It was the state of Kansas again, letting me know that I owed them $6500. I reiterated what I said before, and after a few go-rounds, sent over a thing I got from the IRS that showed what I'd been saying -- that I'd been employed by Verizon Wireless from 2003 to 2004 in Baltimore, MD, and by CEI until February 2005 in Timonium and Owings Mills, MD. And again, I thought the matter was closed.
Last year they got a little pushier, and I expended some effort trying to track down my W2s, which was difficult as getting anything from Verizon requires an employee number that I haven't used since leaving their employ in late 2006. Eventually, I felt, the power of my persuasion and the logic of having proof of Maryland residence and Maryland employment had carried the day, as they started leaving me alone again.
Then I did my taxes this year, and as a result of only being employed half the year and having jobs that don't pay terribly well most of the other half, I was in line for $760 back, which would go a long way toward squaring myself -- fixing the brakes on my car, which were dangerous eight months ago, repaying my parents for loans they'd given me, and such.
I never got my $760. The State of Kansas appropriated it as payment of back taxes. That I've established several times I did not owe. After several irate calls and an visit to the (un)friendly folks at the state IRS, they told me to go get more documentation, which has proven incredibly difficult to obtain. They have in return provided me with nothing at all that shows that I owe them anything.
Today, I got called into my current job's HR department, and was alerted that the state would now be garnishing every penny I make until I've repaid a tax debt of $6,901.34. Which is all of my money over nine pay periods -- four and a half months. In the meantime, the money I would otherwise have had was barely enough to keep my head above water what with the cost of rent, food, and a 30-mile commute to a job that wasn't paying much before it became indentured servitude to the state.
If I were a billionaire, that seven grand would mean nothing to me, and the state would bend over backwards to accommodate whatever problem I was having. With the amount of money I make, the state has made no effort at reasonableness, and now has apparently decided that sleeping in a bed indoors is a luxury someone of my means does not deserve.
So what are my options here? Payday next week has been canceled, but rent next week is not. Failing anything else, does anyone not in Kansas have a job for a computer tech / filmmaker?
EDIT: Many thanks to all of you for the recs and the advice. Looks like I've got myself a busy morning ahead of me tomorrow.