Well, today is the seventeenth day in a row that I've worked and I was really, really looking forward to a stress-free 4 days off. Now, I just received mail from the state of Oregon informing me that they have concluded the results of their research into my taxes and I owe them almost $4,000 in taxes on the years 1990 to 1994.
Interestingly, they are demanding that I pay and they are assessing interest, but despite my requests, they have not been able to produce any legal documentation demonstrating that I even earned money in those years, much less owed them enough to warrant the taxes and penalties that they have assessed. I did earn money in that time, but I have to go to court to get them to prove that they have any documentation proving what I owed.
The only documentation that they could have which listed what I owe would be what are called "W-2" forms. If they can produce those, they would also list what my employers automatically paid in taxes. I've already written to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for copies of those documents, but they haven't arrived. I'm wondering what legal ground the Oregon Department of Revenue can assess taxes against income they have no records of, aside from an anonymous entry in a database.
Naturally, I have no records from 8 to 12 years ago. Further, employers are only legally required to keep those records for seven years. I find it a bit curious that Oregon has only chosen to assess taxes during the years I lived here for which my employers are no longer required to keep records.
I guess I'm guilty until proven innocent. Gotta love this country.
