Thursday, December 3, 2009

All I got was this lousy education

DH was in a bad mood last night. This is extraordinarily unusual for him and can usually be tied back to a specific source. Money. Or rather the amount of money that seems to be gushing out of our checking account at an alarming rate.

This past weekend I opened a letter from the State of Virginia Tax Department asking me to file taxes for 2009. I showed it to DH and laughed because we haven't lived in Virginia for more than two years. North Carolina and the Federal Government get enough of my hard earned money, thank-you-very-much.

We ain't laughing no more. Yes, that sentence did require a double negative to convey my annoyance. Turns out that when we filed taxes for 2006 we neglected to file a state income tax for me. Why? Because I did my internship for BigFinance in North Carolina and properly filed my NC state taxes. Both of us totally spaced on the fact that because I lived in Virginia for that year even though I made zero dollars in the state and paid out tens of thousands of dollars in tuition I still owned them money. The best part? Despite rock bottom interest rates we have been charged 42% in interest. Thank you, Virginia! I'm especially thrilled because even though my husband worked in the state during my tenure at UVA I somehow didn't qualify for in state tuition. But you better believe they will also charge me for income I didn't even earn in their state!

I'm hoping we can work some magic with the numbers and get the total down a bit. Isn't it lovely that this occurred right around the holidays? So, has anyone else had run ins with state or federal tax returns? Do I have any hope of getting some of that interest dismissed or is this a suck it up kind of situation?

Update: DH just told me that we now owe zero to the lovely State of Virginia. Woot! Apparently they credit us for what we paid to North Carolina which ended up being more than twice what we would have paid to Virginia.

3 comments:

LauraC said...

I ran into something similar but not sure if it will help you. I went to college in California but never claimed residency there since I was a student. I claimed my residency in Florida since that's where my parents were and they claimed me on my taxes.

I did that since Florida has no state tax! I did have to file in California every year. It calculated that I owed them zero since I did not reside there (for tax purposes) but I earned there.

So I think from your post that you resided in Virginia? If you could claim that you resided in NC for that time and filed taxes,then you might be able to get away with it?

Donna said...

actually something very similar happened to me between living in NY and PA. I went to H&R Block and they figured it out - exactly how it worked out for you. I paid taxes in PA and that does give you a credit in the other state - but you still have to file.

Nicole S. said...

That was a close one!

My husband has to file taxes here (MA) and in NJ (where his project is) because he works there during the week, but his home and office are here. Luckily, his company pays for our taxes to be done since they are the ones sending him off but I was so surpised when I heard about it. You'd think it would be one or the other...