My State Tax Refund is WHAT?
I have been hearing this ugly rumor that I am getting an I.O.U. from the State of California instead of my tax refund. Come to find out, thi...
http://www.menifee247.com/2009/02/my-state-tax-refund-is-what.htm
I have been hearing this ugly rumor that I am getting an I.O.U. from the State of California instead of my tax refund. Come to find out, this is true! How did we let our economy get to such a state as to not be able to pay our bills, one of which is paying tax refunds to the good citizens who grace our state!?! We live and work here, paying our taxes without question, (at least most of us do) and now we are facing one of our hardest economic years WITHOUT our state refunds in hand.
My question is: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
You are a citizen, like me, and you have a voice, which counts. Have you contacted your local and state representatives with your opinion? Have you voiced your dismay and concern? I have, and I will continue to do so until something happens to recitify this situation. But I am one - yes, one voice. You are too! Together we are two, twenty, two hundred, two thousand. Raise your voice, and make it count!
Scott Mann is headed to Sacramento for the Republican Spring Convention on February 20th thru the 22nd. He is our local leader, and should take your voice with him on this journey. Let him know your thoughts! He will certainly be hearing mine!
Go Get 'Em Scott!!
My question is: WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
You are a citizen, like me, and you have a voice, which counts. Have you contacted your local and state representatives with your opinion? Have you voiced your dismay and concern? I have, and I will continue to do so until something happens to recitify this situation. But I am one - yes, one voice. You are too! Together we are two, twenty, two hundred, two thousand. Raise your voice, and make it count!
Scott Mann is headed to Sacramento for the Republican Spring Convention on February 20th thru the 22nd. He is our local leader, and should take your voice with him on this journey. Let him know your thoughts! He will certainly be hearing mine!
Go Get 'Em Scott!!
If one of us owed additional taxes above and beyond what our employer withheld, and we chose to send an I.O.U., the Franchise Tax Board would be knocking on our door asking for "their" money. Sure, they would gladly let us set up a payment plan, but they would also promptly charge us interest for the privilege of being able to make payments.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing that makes the whole process a little easier to stomach is the fact that, according to the FTB, some of us may actually be entitled to interest. Interest will depend on the length of the delay.
While I agree that the FTB and IRS would be imposing penalties for anyone who owns them money and wants to give it in IOU form, I ask just how is the State supposed to make up money in the budget?
ReplyDeleteState workers are being forced to take days off without pay, offices are closed and the consumer gets the shaft.
That in a nutshell seems to be most people's thought process. But take a look at the other side. Once the economy gets tough, changes have to be made. We as consumers spend less and try to save more. We eat out less, shop less and buy less large ticket items. It is called trying to survive, which we all are doing based on the current economic state.
So, recently the State of California has announced "changes" in the way they do business. State workers are suing the Governor, the Governor is suing state workers and everyone thinks they do not have to give up a piece of the pie. So how exactly do you save money if there are not changes made? I work in a government position and would gladly take a couple of days off if it meant saving jobs. I can wait on my FTB tax refund because I do not depend on it to survive.
Simply, my thought here is concessions will have to be made to fix the budget. Our unemployment rate is near 10%. Let's try some of these items instead of further lay-offs which will only add more insult to injury.
I am not worry...I will soon be stimulated. The money that we paid in taxes is coming back in bushels. A new dawn is here!
ReplyDeleteWe can pass out the same kool-aid they are drinking in Sacramento and Washington DC or like our county supervisors are doing, we can file a law suit.
ReplyDeleteMe...I'm going to the gun show and renting 'Patriot'. Maybe Braveheart or WWII movies, anything to remember the country we used to be.
From a Sacramento Bee article earlier this week:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/story/1600656.html
" Counties in California say they've had enough – and they aren't going to take it anymore.
In what amounts to a Boston Tea Party-style revolt against the state Capitol, they're threatening to withhold money."
Riverside county went a step further and is suing to NOT provide the services they are mandated to provide...unless they get the state funds to provide them.
I don't really think any of this will help. No offense, but 'lawyering' seems to be the only occupation not affected these days. Let's stop sending lawyers to make laws and plan budgets.
Everyone in Sacramento wants to play the 'blame' game instead of acting like good stewards with our resources. The cry to increase Californians' taxes to bail out politicians who have spent the state into an $8 billion hole is really too much don't you think? Regardless of your politics, reason should prevail. If we can't afford it...stop doing it.
I don't want more lawyers paid to fight this in the courts. We need to fight this with our dollars now, by not giving them more money..and introducing yourself to your elected reps so you can make sure you have the right representation!
First of all, there's nothing good about getting a tax refund. It only means that you've been paying too much money.
ReplyDeleteI'd advise everyone to ask your employer for a new W2 (or is it W4?) form. Then increase your number of dependents so that the government takes out less taxes from your paychecks. You want to achieve a balance where at the end of the year, you barely owe them.
Sacramento has been screwing us for the last 30 years and now that you are getting an IOU for, what, $200 you are up in arms about it. Wake up! If it takes an IOU for a couple of hundred dollars to get you up in arms wait until Washington D.C. really screws you over. But, by then it will be too late.
ReplyDeleteMany people already knew about this in Jan. They received I.O.U.'s. And, there are many who will scream about it in March because they "had no idea" and again in April. Too much time listining to their fav. tunes, watching their sports channels, and getting entertained in America. We know all the celebrity gossip but none of the new laws that have just been passed while we were not looking.
ReplyDeleteAs a teacher, on August 15th, there will be parents standing in their children's classrooms and wonder why their are 12 more students packed in that classroom and why the teacher has no time to explain it because she has 32 6 year olds running wild and she is trying to find 32 pencils.
Wake up America! While you have been entertained Change has happened and it does not look like there is much Hope for the way things "used to be."
Yes and this "stimulus package" is just going to make things much worse. Email your senators. Tell them you don't want this to pass. You can't spend your way out of debt, it's just not possible. Most of the stuff in this package will not create jobs NOW, if at all. Tell the gov't you don't like what is going on. They've forgotten they work for US, not the other way around.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind, if you voted for the politicians who are in office, you really shouldn't complain. You put them there. However, come election time, let's vote them all out (at least the one's who put us in this mess), and start with a clean slate. It doesn't take a genius to know if you only have so much money to spend, you can't spend any more without going into the toilet. It looks like between the State of California, and now the Federal Government, hang on, there about to flush this toilet.
ReplyDeleteI believe everyone one is @ fault here....I voted for Arnie but he is turning out to be more of a Kennedy. The dems have to many social programs that I pay for. My repubs are trying but it is failing. I and just so I say this once I thought we were going to have hope and change. Yuk it makes me sick. I am mad about not getting my return but what am I to do. Nobama and the rest of the lot will screw me and my family even more than califonia. Ughhh When are people going to wake up and stop drinking the Koolaid. I for one am ready for a revolution.
ReplyDeleteFor the last three years since I retired, Ive been paying more to the State and Feds. After all the years I worked I thought things would get easier, apparently they get more expensive. I worked hard to paid off everything ie. kids, college, home...etc In reality I lost all my deductions So I get penalized and have to pay more than when I was working.Guess I should appreciate the fact that I can still afford helping my kids out.
ReplyDeleteIf I voted for the people in office they should listen to me and do what I want, that is what the founding fathers wanted.
ReplyDeleteHow do I contact my state and federal legislatures?
The informed citizen will revolt and not pay taxes! Throw the tea in harbor! Now!!!
ReplyDeleteAs another poster stated earlier, we all knew about this for months so stop acting as though it is news. If you want programs cut , pick out a few that you benefit from, and write your pols. to cut those. If we all feel that cutting funding to the poor is ok, then cutting services you use or need is also ok, right? Spending should be cut, but the areas that most of the idiot Republicans in Sacramento want to cut are aimed at the poor and needy. Just flat out mean spirited. Pretty odd coming from the party of Jesus, eh?
ReplyDeleteOutside of a few fring Republicant economists, most legitimate and unbiasesd Economists have stated that the only thing wrong with the Stimulus package is that it is too small. It will work, some of it faster than others, but it will work. It would have worked faster without the stimulus killing tax cuts, but the ignorant must be kept blissful, and the Republican party has to feel as though they still matter. Well you do still matter. None of us will forget how your President, along with his ignorant and backwards, political beliefs put us in the position we are in today. It's alright though, as long as we complain, rather than actually research, we will all be happy right?
We all have contributed to this mess of a state, now we have to deal with it. Get ready people, it is going to be a bumpy and painful ride.
I haven't received an IOU, so does this mean I'll get my tax refund within a reasonable time?
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't received your IOU yet it just means the State cannot afford the paper to print it on. I'm sure stamps are out of the question too.
ReplyDeleteLOL!
ReplyDeleteMy opinion in response to your answer is quite sarcastic but its part of the reason our state is the way it is. Let's invite a few more illegals in to California who don't pay taxes or encourage a few more single mothers to get invitro so we can pay them $780 a month per child to sit home on her ass. We americans seem to like to pay people who don't do anything for a living! The american dream! Gotta love it! Yes I am cynical! I pay almost $15,000 a year in state taxes and end up owing every year---for what, to pay for lazy people who don't want to work, illegals to send their children to school who refuse to learn english and cause our teachers undue stress for low test scores (thanks Bush NCLB), and to allow big business to walk away from construction sites (Newport Extension!) leaving a community of hard working people looking like crap! We have such a productive political system. Again--the American dream! I guess I should just be thankful I have a job so I can pay increased taxes to help our needy. After all, we have allowed them to be the needy!
ReplyDeleteMaybe our governor should talk to his wife-- possibly the democratic blood will rub off!
ReplyDeleteOK, I am going to break my own rule and comment on my own blog. To contact your local legislators, check out the February issue of the Country Review Magazine. Inside you will find a list with all of the addresses, emails and phone numbers you will need. I should have included this in my blog. Please, think before you comment - my intent was to encourage each reader to contact their local leaders to voice thier opinions, not to sling mud at one another. All of the negative comments are so unnecessary, people. Let's band together, and as united front, encourage our leaders to find solutions!
ReplyDeletego to www.ftb.ca.gov to check your return status...
ReplyDeleteCan anyone here suggest a free, easy website where I can file my tax return (and hopefully get a quick refund)? The accountant I was using has raised her fee. Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteOur system needs a complete overhaul. Contrary to what we are constanly told, California is not the highest taxed state in the Country. We rank 19 out of 50 states plus the District of Columbia. California has always been a wacked out anti-tax state, and while no individual wants to pay higher taxes, if we knew are taxes were being used efficiently, most level headed people would have no problem. Prop 13 is one of the leading causes for our present day struggles. Instead of amending the tax code to help individuals who needed help, we through the baby out with the bath water. Had Prop 13 not been passed, income taxes would, be lower, sales taxes would be lower, housing prices would not have grown to unrealistic prices,and our state budget would be consistent on a year to year basis.
ReplyDeleteTaxes are not the problem. The cost of Worker's Comp, Health Insurance, etc...is what costs the state billions. That is what kills business, not taxes. CA. has one of the easiest staes when it comes to business taxes. As musch as some people complain, taxes won't drive business from CA., Healyh Insurance and Worker's comp will.
Education is extremely expensive, and alays will be. State and Federal judges, and Federal politicians, have created requirements that schools have to follow, yet the Feds don't fund those programs, the state is forced to. Education is expensive and it will continue to be.
State Pensions cost the state money, but you must seperate state employees. Teachers have a 45/45 split for their pensions, where some state employees do get 100%. The issue should not be whether or not state employees deserve them, Police, Fire, and teachers do, the question we should be asking is why don't we deserve them. We have let the corporations off the hook, with promises of huge 401K payouts. Pensions ran out of style, our society let them go away, and now we feel the pain from our decisions. If you don't want to pay for pensions, feel free to police your own neighborhoods, save your own life, and teach your own children, plus work your 70 hour per week job.
We have lived high off the hog, for a long time and now it is time to pay up.
My state refund os not $200 but rather $2000. I am counting on it to pay my property taxes - you think THEY will take an IOU? LOL My husbands union has always withheld too much and yes - we should fix it but Im not the best saver so I rather enjoy getting back a nice refund. Like a savings account I couldnt do! But my tax guy said last week that they were still not issuing IOU's but rahter it would be 3 weeks after you get your federal refund. So Im sure that chnges hourly - so I guess I'll see it when I see it.
ReplyDeleteI am also upset at this situation because the government where the ones who got us into this recession and now they want to hold our money as an IOU, but yet they still deducted taxes from paychecks and made us pay for taxes here and there. It is not our fault that the State did not know how to budget there money and now we have to suffer the consequeces. My refund is over 3000.00 money I had paln to use to pay some of my debts now I can't count on that money. If the State wants to give us an IOU then we need to charge them interest for every month that they owe us just like the credit cards compnay do. However, this is not our problem many of us are going through tuff times because of Government mistakes and they expect to punish the people more when people have already gone through so much, losing their houses, their jobs and so forth that alone has put many of us in misery and now this. It's just not right. We need our refunds and the State and Government has not done anything to bail their people out why should we Bail the State out when they haven't done nothing for us.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my tax accountant, people expecting a refund from the state will get an I.O.U.; the federal refund should arrive as scheduled.
ReplyDeleteSo, Anonymous, at February 17, 2009 11:58 AM, you apparently think we're UNDERTAXED in California? No, the State is spending too much money. That's the bottom line. You can't spend more than you're taking in, and you can't over-anticipate future revenue based on what's happening today. The State has simply gotten too BIG and too EXPENSIVE to run the way it is. Regardless of WHY companies are leaving the state, they are leaving, and taking their tax revenue with them.
ReplyDeleteThe more California tightens its grip on taxpayers, the more they will leave the state, leaving California with less tax revenue.
The vision of the founding fathers was LIMITED Government, a Conservative idea that has been consistently rejected recently by leaders in D.C., Sacramento, and most large cities across our country. That's why we're having the budget troubles today.
Conservative politics is a myth. No Republican has been a true conservative, and Conservatism itself is inherently flawed. A simplistic philosophy in a nation that is highly complex. Of course when times are good, conservatism looks grand, but it times of need the flaws in Conservative thinking become painfully obvious. Conservative has too much childlike tendencies and not enough critical thought. The world and our nation requires an understanding of our society that just isn't present in modern Conservative thinking. Nobody loves taxes, but true Americans understand that it isn't the taxes we should be afraid of, it is how our politicians spend them. Our job is to make sure our taxes benefit our society as a whole. Only then will our nation be "strong". The sooner we can extinguish the myth of Conservatism, the sooner our nation will heal, move on and become stronger.
ReplyDelete