Tax Fury

During these cold days it is probably best to find some indoor activities--one great pasttime is looking at old WKRP episodes on hulu.com, and following the pratfalls and hijinks of Less Nessman, Venus Flytrap and Dr. Johnny Fever. Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to! These days it's all "CSI this" and "Who Wants to Marry that". Flimshaw! Bring back some classic half hour comedies, where everything is wrapped up in 24 minutes and done on a single set.

Of course, today I get a nasty letter from the state of New York that decided that I owe them upwards of $10,000 in taxes because I didn't file in 2003. Which is especially fascinating since I was a Virginia resident for that entire year, and had no New York income. If I want to challenge their assertion that I owe them this money, I need to prove that I was a resident of another state. New York state of course has not produced anything indicating that I was a New York resident--apparently their intuition alone is enough to charge me this delinquency and also penalties on top of that. What a brilliant concept! I think New York could go farther, and send a letter to every single U.S. resident asking them to pay a delinquency, or to prove otherwise that they were not a New York resident. And why shouldn't all 50 states do this? This way, every American every year can be forced to send verifications to the 49 states of which they are not a resident.

Lucky me--I get to deal with this new headache!