Guy Tries To Pay $1.50 In Missed Sales Tax, Gets Threatened With Fines, Criminal Charges
from the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished dept
The Agitator points us to quite a ridiculous story coming out of Florida. An incredibly law-abiding citizen almost got seriously punished for going above and beyond to live up to the law. Apparently he bought some things for personal use at a local hardware store -- and then noticed that the store forgot to charge him sales tax on the $23 bill. It was probably because the guy also works for an organization that is tax exempt, and the store just assumed he was buying on that account. Now, most people would think "cool" and move on. But, not this guy. He felt obliged to send in $1.50 and an explanation to Florida's Dept. of Revenue.You would think that Florida would be thrilled to find such an incredibly honest person. Instead, it sent him an angry letter fining him $50 for failing to file a business tax return. He wrote back, explaining the situation again, noting that it wasn't a business, and he was just making up for the forgotten sales tax charge. The state's response? A demand for $650 in business taxes and a threat of criminal charges. It was only after a local TV news channel contacted the state on the guy's behalf that Florida admitted its mistake. Isn't bureaucracy great?
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(@AC #1: spell check is your friend if basic literacy isn't...)
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Then I saw "Florida."
Now it makes sense.
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Re:
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Stupid Government
That's why I have initiated a campaign, ala the Star Trek Movie I, to solve that problem. Replace the bureaucrats and coffee-jerks, and well the Detriot Lions, with robots. The humans can all move to Cancun and hit the beach while the robots pay the gas bills.
Bureaucrats are programmed to be removed from illicit incentives of political pressure (think illinois). They can also be removed from licit incentives to do the right thing. There are bad apples. There are bad apples everywhere.
What's more interesting is how, in this post-news media area where newspapers and TV newsrooms are going the way of ENRON, how can the bad apples be exposed. How can Web 2.0 be used to align incentives with the "licit."
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Re: Stupid Government
Briefly: A friend of mine got divorced with one child involved. The mother of this child made a little more money than the father, and a judge, following the law, judged AGAINST the mother to the tune of $4 a month. The father didn't bother to collect this money. A few years go by and the state CPS suddenly sent HIM a notice of collection for a few hundred dollars. The mother wasn't exactly sympathetic, but had always been reasonable and had not started the action, especially since it meant she would have been acting against herself. So she did nothing.
After some more years of failing to get that state to understand the judgment was not against him but the mother he finally got in front of another judge who rectified the situation.
I simply have no love for politicians who speak only of expanding government. I hear loads about spending and collecting taxes. I very rarely hear about politicians who speak about reigning in government and spending the taxes they collect more efficiently. Thus, may they all hang.
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love Florida
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Re: love Florida
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FUCK FLORIDA!
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Low class idiots
But this guy who wanted to $1.50 in taxes from the hardware store that didn't charge him needs to get out of the state. He's probably a part of the 2% of people who don't aim for tourists crossing the street.
Then there's the blowhard Rush Limbaugh who preaches from the Florida-based EIB Pulpit every day. Idiots, I tell ya.
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Re: Low class idiots
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He's just a petty troublemaker. You know it, I know it.
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Government Worker Still Employed
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Re: Government Worker Still Employed
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Re: Government Worker Still Employed
Why? hasn't he been abused enough?
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FLORIDIOTS
THEY DON'T CALL THEM FLORIDIOTS FOR NOTHING!
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FLORIDIOTS
THEY DON'T CALL THEM FLORIDIOTS FOR NOTHING!
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Re: FLORIDIOTS
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You can't fix stupid
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I've learned a few lessons...
It would have been easier for him to solve this at the original point of sale... Have the store refund & recharge him.
Once the government gets involved, you have awoken a slumbering (idiotic) giant.
This guy probably unintentionally "cost" the government $150 in man-hours, paperwork, postage, filing costs already... just to "save" a buck-fitty.
He has surely learned his lesson...don't try to outsmart the government, even if your conscious says different. You *are* smarter, but they are MUCH bigger, and can impose fines/imprisonment on you...enforceable with guns and threat of personal harm. And have you really helped your family then?
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Re: I've learned a few lessons...
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So what will happen now is that Florida will implement the "fix". That "fix" will in turn fuck over a bunch of other citizens. And the domino effect will cause the state machine to roll over someone else. Maybe an entire town.
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Oh yeah, the same way they fixed the counting of ballots......
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He was not trying to outsmart the government, he was trying to do the right thing. Did you not read the article?
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The ministry of truth disagrees.
Oceania has always been at war with East Asia.
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Florida Government should fire the person responsible!
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Re: Florida Government should fire the person responsible!
The first person got the letter, filed the 10-91A-BC form, which caused their manager to report to department 14 to cross verify the 19-X was properly filed in triplicate. That in turn caused the mail room to print a 17-C-14 to fax it across to Family Services, which sent out for a paid lunch billed back to the Corrections Department...etcetera...
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Should have had the common sense to do what most incredibly law-abiding citizens would have done.
Drive back to the Hardware store with the Receipt in hand and given the Clerk the Buck Fifty he owed THEM.
Then they could correct THEIR tax mistake like an incredibly law-abiding small business.
Not kick in the doors at the Supreme Court and try to pay for a penny candy he stole!
He deserves the harassment he got!
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Aha! The prediction comes true!
In that sci-fi a guy (for in a computerized future) gets a bill in the mail for exactly $0.00. As a normal human he just ignores it and that causes an avalanche of fines for the unpaid bill. The fines grow bigger and bigger and the whole thing ends with a death sentence.
Kudos to the writer!
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sales tax
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