That is really good advice. This is nothing new. The author seems to attribute it to the times but I had something very similar happen in California about twe

That is really good advice. This is nothing new. The author seems to attribute it to the times but I had something very similar happen in California about twenty years ago when the state was quite flush. Whoever didn't warn you that this could happen once there was a lien was giving you bad advice. I like the suggestion of filing a $0 return because once you get on the radar of the state tax agencies it gets very expensive to get them off your back. As a kid I failed to file because I owed like $20 (but I did file a federal return, which alerted the state). They eventually froze my account and it cost about $1k to settle the matter. At the time that was real money to me.