3457 NY Sales Tax!!!!!!!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

What is hateful to you do not do to others.
That is the entire law. All the rest is commentary.
-- Rabbi Hillel the Elder (paraphrased) --

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Friday I was very proud of myself. I located online and filled out the four-page form for the final tax filing for my NY DBA, indicating that I was killing it, enclosed my original tax authority certificate, and mailed it to Albany. I made 2 copies of the tax forms and the certificate - one for my files and one for my accountant. And I did it all two weeks before required. Yea me!

Yesterday morning I walked along the waterfront with a Meetup group (8 other adults, a child, and a basset hound), and had lunch with a smaller group in a tiny diner in town.

When I got home, I got out some 8.5 x 11 photo paper and made copies of a few hundred photos for Daughter. Actually, I'm giving her the originals, I made the copies for me. It took all afternoon, into evening, to do it all.

The very first set came out oddly. I had arranged six snapshots on the scanner screen, put photo paper in the hopper, and pressed "copy" - and was amazed that the photos came out with ... text ... NYS tax form text ... in the spaces ... between the photos .... Ack!

I had left the last page of the tax form in the copier! That's the page with my signature, and email address, and phone number! I sent off an incomplete form! Ack!

I can't simply make another copy, include the original final page, and send it again, because the certificate went in the original package! If this were a reasonable business, you'd think that would be ok, that they could put together the parts from two different mailings.

But this is NOT a reasonable business. This is the New York State tax machine. It's an impenetrable bureaucracy - so impenetrable that when you call the phone number, you get a tape that tells you to go to the website. Period.

Of course, this situation won't be on the website.

I have no other option but to do just what I can't - to write a cover letter, attach the full tax form and a copy of the certificate, send it by overnight mail so it will arrive about the same time as the other - and hope that with the literally tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of forms they'll be receiving, someone will be smart enough to put the two halves together.

(Um, it has been my experience that they don't read explanatory letters. I don't have much hope. And given that there is a hefty fine for being late, and a hefty cost to replace a "lost" cretificate, there's not exactly any incentive for them to make it easy.)

I am crushed.
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3321 Kill me now!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Honest men are slaves to their conscience, and there's no predicting 'em.
But you can always trust a dishonest man to stay that way.
-- Pirate "Jack Sparrow" --

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I need to get my cars registered here. The local gendarme has been slowing down at the end of the driveway and peering at Fred's NY plates. One of these days he's going to ask.

In order to register them here, I need the titles. I can't find the titles. They MUST be in the old house somewhere, but I've sorted through every stack of paper, and they are nowhere. Naturally, the folder in the file cabinet marked "cars" has nothing in it.

So, "all I have to do" is apply to the NYS DMV for new copies. I have the forms. I have the $20 each. What I don't have is a way to receive them.

NYS will send the new titles only to the address of record. Period. The address of record is the old address. Even if I change the address of record (and I'd have to change it to a NY address, not a NJ address) they will send the new titles with the new address on them only to the old address.

No, you cannot pick them up in person. Impossible. Mail to address of record only.

Duh? This has to happen a lot. Why don't they have a better process?

I'm having the USPS forward mail going to the old house to the new address (there's very little by now that doesn't have the new address). The old house is no longer getting mail. HOWEVER, the USPS will not forward ANY official government mail, state or federal. It will be returned to sender, the DMV.

The two women at the information desk at the DMV office in Kingston, NY, told me that there will be a USPS sticker on the envelope telling them the new address, but they don't know if that will result in them being resent to the new address. (They, employees of the DMV, actually looked at each other ruefully and said, "After all, it's the DMV we're talking about.") So they gave me a phone number in Albany to call and ask what to do.

I have called that number - early morning, late afternoon, lunchtime, over and over - and all I'm getting is a recorded message saying that the call volume is too high and they are not taking calls, that I should go to the website. The website just says they'll mail new titles to the address of record. Sigh.

They have divided the state into area code blocks, and ask that you call different numbers for different area codes. I've tried the number for the old area code, and for out of state, and I get the same "high volume, go to website" message. Click. Crickets.

Hey folks! It's not high call volume causing the problem! It's low phone answerer volume! Put more people on the damn phones!

I don't know what to do.

The only thing I can think of is to stop the USPS forwarding, and instead have the mail held at the post office, and then pick it up on trips upriver until the titles arrive, then reinstate forwarding. BUT, it was a permanent (one year) forward, and I don't know if they'll let me do that.

Kill me now.

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AHAH! I'll write them a letter asking what I should do! I'll even include a SASE.

(What are the chances that IF there's a response, it will be coherent?)

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I checked the DMV website. I can change my address online for the driver's license and registrations, but not for the titles. "Your title is still valid with the old address on it."

Duh?
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1791 Watch More TV! Especially if you have kids.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Read this: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/COL04/804280375/1081.

"[I]f you ask Christopher Ratte and his wife how they lost custody of their 7-year-old son, the short version is that nobody in the Ratte family watches much television."

It's scary. There's so much wrong with the whole incident. (And I'm purposely being vague because I want you to read the article. It's short, and the link is safe.)

Why didn't the vendor make it clear what he was selling?

Why didn't the concerned citizen simply ask the father if he was aware what the child was holding before alerting security?

Why didn't the security officer and the cop at the hospital consider the father's intent before calling CPS?

Why didn't the medical people say "No harm done"?

Why didn't CPS wait for the aunt to get the hotel room before shuttling the child off to foster care?

Why didn't CPS consider the father's intent before saying that he had to stay away from home?

The answer to those questions is stupidity, love of power, unthinking bureaucrats following rules without concern for the effects. You can't convince me that they were really concerned for the welfare of the child. Could the father's social status have had anything to do with the way CPS responded? The actions of CPS hurt the child much more than the actions of the father. The incident with the aunt is the clincher there. They're just shoveling cases!

As for the father's mistake? The very fact that he didn't know what he bought says to me that he's probably a good father. I prefer that he not be familiar with the like.

The scariest part of all this is that it could happen to any of us who have children. How many times this week could you have lost your children if one of these stupid CPS people happened to see what goes on in your home?
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