by Kerry Dougherty
Not good enough, Virginia Department of Taxation. Not even close.
It’s not enough to apologize and tell the roughly 15,000 Virginia Beach taxpayers whose personal tax information on their 1099G forms was sent to the wrong address to simply hold tight until the correct document finds its way to them.
Those forms contain names and addresses, the last four digits of the taxpayers’s Social Security number plus the amount of his or her tax refund or overpayment last year.
News flash: Many of us are scrupulous about deterring identity theft. We shred invitations to open credit cards, insurance policies and bank accounts. We destroy bills with our names and account numbers on them. Heck, I black out personal details on plastic prescription bottles before tossing the empty container in the recycling.
I don’t want anyone rummaging though my big blue bin to know what’s ailing me. I definitely don’t want them eyeballing my tax documents.
Over the weekend I received dozens of messages from readers who were alarmed when they opened the mail from the Virginia’s tax department and found someone else’s name and info inside. I had dinner with friends who were victims of the mix-up on Saturday night and they couldn’t decide whether they should track down the person whose information arrived in their mailbox or return it to Richmond.
Shred it, the tax department advises. You’ll get the correct form soon.
According to the Department of Taxation website, the 1099G form is a report of income received from the commonwealth during the past year. The IRS requires the forms because state tax refunds are considered taxable income.
A caller to “The Kerry and Mike Show” Monday morning said she’d received someone else’s 1099G. When she phoned Richmond she was told “very few” forms had been sent out in error.
Very few?
When I called a couple of hours later, I was told that the number of documents that had been sent to the wrong addresses numbered. “Fewer than 15,000.”
To me, that sounds like a lot of tax information floating around. For some reason, the tax form clusterfart is confined to Virginia Beach.
Lucky us.
I asked the spokeswoman how this happened and she said she’d get back to me. She did. But only to direct me to the department’s website, which did NOT explain what went wrong.
Virginia Tax takes the protection of taxpayer information very seriously. We are aware of an issue involving printed Form 1099-Gs for a number of taxpayers. Together with the print vendor, we have thoroughly investigated the issue and identified the specific taxpayers affected. We deeply regret this error and apologize for any inconvenience.
When he was running for governor, Glenn Youngkin promised that if he won he’d kick some derriere at the Parole Board, the DMV and the Virginia Employment Commission.
Looks like he’d better add the Department of Taxation to the list of departments that went awry during the Northam years.
This column has been republished with permission from Kerry: Unemployed & Unedited.
