ARGH!!!!
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| Tue, 02-15-2005 - 5:44pm |
Good grief. We've been waiting for the fed return to get direct deposited into our account. It was supposed to go in Friday. No luck. So I've been checking and checking...
I call home today and find out that we got a letter from the feds. They've seized our tax return because of that pesky bill from the VA. It's $600 and they dont' charge interest, so we've put them to the bottom of the priority list and have been sending them minimums. But - my dh's meds go on that, and they run $70/month (10 prescriptions a month X $7 each fill per month). So we've been getting in deeper with them.
One thing they never told us, not even in all the small print on the back (I just checked), was that when the VA charges went over $500, they would start seizing property, including tax returns. And you can't really fight the feds. They always win.
ARGH!
<----pulling hair out
So, not only did we lose the tax return (which was only about $300), but now our credit is all (*&$@#&^*('d up because of the collection.
Jeez. If I had known this, we would have used the $1000 extra from last month and just paid the *&%$#*()'s off.
So much for good debt news.
We'll still get a state return, because for some reason our state return is always bigger than our federal return. The fed return didn't even cover the whole bill - I sent them $100 last month and then they'll take this, but we'll still owe them another $250 or so. Give or take. They may grab the state return but we'll get most of it. Good thing it was earmarked for snowballing anyway. Just not to THEM at this point in time! That money would have gone further with the 21% interest cc! ARGH!
Lesson learned: Don't call government bills "pesky"...
Lesson #2 learned: Don't put off the feds. They will get their money one way or the other.
More than a little annoyed at myself for being so dumb as to trust the government...
Kris

I'm so sorry this happened. Did the VA put this account into collections without notifying you? If so, can they do that? I would think they would have to send you a letter saying, "Your account has gone over $500, and effective we will be seizing any tax refunds...". Will your state refund cover the remainder of the balance on this account?
Pat
We never got a notice from them - just the normal monthly bills, no extra stuff on the back, no inserts. I guess since they're the government, they can do what they want.
Luckily, our state return will pay them off plus still get us some extra to send to the cc. It just stinks - mostly because I know that it will go as a negative on our credit report and we could have paid them off last month if we had known they were going to do this.
Still annoyed, but calmer...
Kris