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The US department of Education took my tax return one year for a remaining balance on a loan of less than $1,000. I never knew about it, and had thought I paid

The US department of Education took my tax return one year for a remaining balance on a loan of less than $1,000. I never knew about it, and had thought I paid everything off. Well, turns out they took almost $4,000 with all their fees, interest such that had been just building and building for several years. No one had ever tried to contact me via phone, email, etc. for years. The US Department of Education is known for their aggressive collection tactics, including garnishing of wages, taking tax returns and seizing homes and cars. I even heard of a single mother who had her child support taken away because she owed money to a fraudulent vocational school. The US government is openly hostile to those who do business with them, and to their citizens and should be avoided at all costs.

apercu 1y ago
The US government has seemingly been adversarial to their citizens for a long time. Not just in this, but in extremely onerous and expensive demands, like requiring expatriates to file US taxes - that alone cost me nearly $15,000 over 18 years in tax preparation fees (I'm self-employed). Further, the FBAR reporting requirements. I have retirement money in Canada that makes no financial sense to divest yet, and I spent 5-6 hours filing an FBAR this year because the online form doesn't support OSX at all, and I simply could not get an Adobe Acrobat Reader to install on Apple silicon, so I had to rebuild a crappy Dell laptop in order to meet my legal requirements. Now, I get requiring some sort of reporting requirements to stop tax evasion and the like, but the tax filing requirement is not based on anything like net worth, but rather if you are a US citizen you must file (US is one of I think 2 countries in the world with this requirement). And the FBAR requirement is anything up to or over $10k in a foreign bank. For real? If I sound like I am complaining, why don't you walk a mile in my moccasins. #Edit - fixing an autocorrect typo.
nradov 1y ago
Technically they didn't take your tax return, they seized the income tax refund you thought you were owed. A tax return is the 1040 (or similar) form you file with the IRS. Regardless of debt collection issues, as a taxpayer it's best to set your withholding so that you don't get a tax refund. A refund essentially means you were giving the government an interest free loan.

apercu 1y ago

The US government has seemingly been adversarial to their citizens for a long time. Not just in this, but in extremely onerous and expensive demands, like requiring expatriates to file US taxes - that alone cost me nearly $15,000 over 18 years in tax preparation fees (I'm self-employed). Further, the FBAR reporting requirements. I have retirement money in Canada that makes no financial sense to divest yet, and I spent 5-6 hours filing an FBAR this year because the online form doesn't support OSX at all, and I simply could not get an Adobe Acrobat Reader to install on Apple silicon, so I had to rebuild a crappy Dell laptop in order to meet my legal requirements. Now, I get requiring some sort of reporting requirements to stop tax evasion and the like, but the tax filing requirement is not based on anything like net worth, but rather if you are a US citizen you must file (US is one of I think 2 countries in the world with this requirement). And the FBAR requirement is anything up to or over $10k in a foreign bank. For real? If I sound like I am complaining, why don't you walk a mile in my moccasins. #Edit - fixing an autocorrect typo.

nradov 1y ago

Technically they didn't take your tax return, they seized the income tax refund you thought you were owed. A tax return is the 1040 (or similar) form you file with the IRS. Regardless of debt collection issues, as a taxpayer it's best to set your withholding so that you don't get a tax refund. A refund essentially means you were giving the government an interest free loan.