oh no, tax refund problem

You cant bleed a turnip! I would send them a check for as much as you can afford along with a letter sent by registered mail requesting a return receipt explaining your situation and your offer of a reasonable payment plan. If they do take you to court, at least you will be able to show that you tried to work out a solution in good faith. DO NOT give cash as a payment and keep EVERYTHING in writing.

OK this is tough but the first thing you should do is only apologize once. After that stop feeling bad. Mistakes happen and you have the power to make it right. Now, send them a check for anything you can afford and outline your plans for sending them checks until the debt is paid in full. You can indicate you will not honor any interest payments for fees assigned.

So pay the debt. If the debt collectors from the store show up. Make a friendly call to your state tax dept. and let them know of a location where an audit is in order for a store collecting sales tax on products not required to be taxed. That will keep their lawyers busy for a while (grin). In the meantime keep paying your debt to them in installments you can afford. An audit takes about 9 months to resolve and in that time you could be 900 dollars towards paying your debt. At that point they won't pursue you and you can pay the rest...

Not sure of the law in your state but this should not be considered a criminal matter, only civil. The advise on sending an affordable payment along with a schedule should satisfy any judge if this actually went to court. As long as you show good faith to pay the debt the court will recognize their error and hopefully continue with your payment plan. Good to hear that you at least offered the payment plan. Feel free to send the checks to me if they won't take them!!

Definitely send a payment and letter as mentioned above. If they cash it I believe this is a legal acceptance of the terms and can't use a collection agency. If it did go to collections, they don't make you pay all at once anyway, so these guys are trying to scare you.
Mike -

Scare him? They tried to do the right thing, he owes it. His situation is a bummer but non the less he owes. I would find a way to make it right. A slow repayment plan would not interest me either. They did not get their inventory on a slow repayment plan. Start by calling the ccard company and at least try to get them to pay. If you are that delinquent on it well, not gonna happen. Think if you were them, try to resolve it and even though unforseen, they are getting screwed. My guess is that you will get a summons and a court date. They may not be able to make you pay all now, but credit will take a hit and they will garnish you. Maybe they are big enough to walk away but I doubt it. Bummer situation... Now are you getting income tax money back? THat may be your out...

I wouldn't sweat a summons and a court date so long as you are making payments. This would be an issue for small claims court anyway. I am not sure about your area but normally it can take a couple of months to get a court date after the papers have been filed. If you go to court and demonstrate that you have been making payments to the best of your ability, the judge will most likely let you continue. If you can show that you have been going out of your way to work something out with the dealer I doubt that the judge will even make you pay the filing and process server fees and the dealer will be stuck with that. If you haven't been making payments or the dealer is not satisfied with the payment plan, you can be ordered to go back to court (usually 2 to 3 months after the first trial) where you will need to clarify your financial situation. After that, more papers will need to be filed for garnishments to even begin. My point is, just keep paying what you can and keep everything in writing. The dealer may discover how long the process will take along with the fees involved and decide not to pursue this in court. The other option is for the dealer to turn this over to a collection agency and he will have to give that agency up to 1/2 of everything they are able to collect. Keep making reasonable payments and you will be fine. As for the advice about turning the dealer into the state tax agency, don't do it. The odds of the state tax agency doing anything more than calling or sending a letter to the dealer are slim to none. The collected tax in error but paid it back. I am fairly certain that your state tax agency, unless they are very bored, will do nothing about this other than give you a strange look and a chuckle after you have made the complaint. If the dealer finds out you called the tax agency they will probably not even want to talk to you at all let alone work anything out. Again, keep paying what you can and keep all agreements in writing.

burntime said:

Scare him? They tried to do the right thing, he owes it. His situation is a bummer but non the less he owes. I would find a way to make it right. A slow repayment plan would not interest me either. They did not get their inventory on a slow repayment plan. Start by calling the ccard company and at least try to get them to pay. If you are that delinquent on it well, not gonna happen. Think if you were them, try to resolve it and even though unforseen, they are getting screwed. My guess is that you will get a summons and a court date. They may not be able to make you pay all now, but credit will take a hit and they will garnish you. Maybe they are big enough to walk away but I doubt it. Bummer situation... Now are you getting income tax money back? THat may be your out...

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Yes, scare him, . . . the police. What are the police going to do, arrest him? No way. He paid, they made a mistake charging him tax. They are at least partially responsible. I'm not saying he doesn't owe them, that's obvious, but the guy is broke. His credit has already "taken a hit", his account is frozen, and he doesn't have the money to pay them all at once. I agree, they are getting screwed, but a payment plan is in their best interest. Something is better than nothing. From a business perspective, I'd try to be realistic. Collection agency's arn't free. They will end up getting less money overall, and a court/collections payment plan will still not be a lump sum but installments.
My 2 cents.
Mike -

The entire commercial systems pretty much works on faith. It is 100% legal to screw both suppliers and merchants, but since we are all players in the same marketplace, most people don't.

I knew of one stove shop - that owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to a major supplier. Yeah, once in a while they would send in $1000, but never enough to even touch the principal. So the rep tells me he is going to continue to sell them product because he may be able to make up some of the loss.......

Charter Communications, mostly owned by Paul Allen (Microsoft Billionaire) just filed for bankruptcy and will sure screw many suppliers. Meanwhile, Mr. Allen will still have major control and his fortune is safe.

The moral of the story is that the little guys (you and me) try to be honest and pay our bills, while the system allows for those with billions to skip out and have us (business, taxpayers and everyone else) make up the difference.

I don't believe there is really a "moral or ethical" right thing to do in this matter - it is more of a practical situation. The buyer and seller must do what they can in their own interests, while at the same time not intentionally hurting the other party.

First of all they easily could have only refunded the tax, as others said I have also used verious CC machines and you can refund any ammount you want to any card usually.

Now, I would send them in what you can with a letter outlining a proposed payment plan. I have done this before on medical bills from rip-off hospital doctors and they have never had a problem with it. This business is probably hurting just like everyone else so they probably do not like that they are suddenly out $1200 and might have to wait to get it back. If you have nothing to pay them though what can you do. Unless they have proof you tried to defraud them its thier mistake.

Also I would let them take back the remaining pellets but make sure a price is agreed upon before they pick them up and make sure the driver has a signed invoice for you so they don't try and screw you over.

chrisasst said:

Oh and they want me to let them know what I am going to do by March 31st.

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Offer to pay them back with interest for their inconvenience? What's it worth to you to not go to court? A court imposed payment plan could include interest anyway. If you offer to pay them back with interest and they refuse and take you to court, a judge may think very negatively toward them. Of course, you need to be able to prove all this. You need letters, stop using the phone.
Mike -