Flat farking broke

[figmo]

Someone sucked all the money out of my savings and checking accounts today. My E*Trade account is about to get seized by the state for back taxes they think I owe (my accountant is still working on the returns for the last three years due to discrepancies on E*Trade's part during my "day trading" days). I suspect it's the looney guy from the CA Franchise Tax Board.

I don't know what to do. How the hell am I supposed to pay bills when I can't write checks or put the funds in for the folks who are supposed to auto-suck them? Do I need a tax lawyer? Do I need a bankruptcy lawyer?

I'm terrified.

Comments

[delennara.livejournal.com]

*hugs* NO idea how to help you...
Maybe Dan_ad_nauseam can help you? He is a lawyer after all..

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Prayers and good thoughts on the way.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

*hug*

I wish there was something I could think of :(

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, Lynn. This is a rotten thing to have happen, and I wish I could be more help.

For what it's worth, I have some ideas. Most of them you've probably already thought of on your own; I'm just trying to help make sure that all the bases are covered.

1) Call the bank; find out if there's any mistake. They may at least be able to tell you *who* sucked the money out or where it went.

2) You've been stolen from. This may also be a case of identity theft. Call the police.

2a) I'm pretty sure there is help for people who've been the victim of electronic fraud. I'm not sure what the exact mechanisms are, but I bet the police will have some ideas about where else you can turn for help. Be sure to ask them. Ask them about free or low-cost lawyers for low income individuals too.

2b) If the police have info on lawyers--check into it. See what advice they have for someone in your position. They may have info on other types of help that are available for dealing with your situation (programs that help pay bills while the crime is being investigated, whatever).

3) Call the people who have a legitimate autosuck on your account (electric company, phone company, whoever). Warn them that you've been a victim of theft and the account is empty. Give them the case number you got from the police, and / or arrange for the bank to verify that an unusual transaction has occurred and is under investigation.

4) Call anybody you would normally have to write a check for in the next week or so and give them a similar heads-up.

5) Call the state about the back taxes. Explain the situation as best you can, complete with case number and bank verification if you can manage it. They may or may not listen to reason--but if you call them promptly the chances are better.



I wish I could be more help than just offering these commonsense ideas.

Yours--Cat

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a good idea to contact the bank, perhaps sticking any money you can get your hands on into pure cash, and yes, if it does turn out to be the IRS, a tax lawyer would be good.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Add to the above:

-- Immediately cancel all direct deposit arrangements with your employer(s); get your paychecks as checks. (This is implied in "contact & cancel all automatic payment arrangements", except for those that may earn you points off an existing loan, which should be changed to a new account.)

-- Once you have confirmed that it is theft as opposed to a reversible error, permanently close the affected accounts and open new accounts under new account numbers. If you don't like the way your bank handled the situation, change banks.

(I am inclined to think identity fraud because it happened on a Friday, because your wages weren't garnished, and because the bank was unable to immediately confirm that the action was a seizure. I may be wrong and FTB remains a likely culprit.)

Unfortunately, I must also advise you that most cases of "cleaning out the account" are done by someone who knows the victim well enough to have unquestioned access to their living space. Keep this in mind as you investigate what happened. Proving that this was done without your permission may be a pain.

Don't be terrified. This is a bloody nuisance, but it's not like you got hit by a truck and you're on life support in the ICU. Life will go on, it will just suck for a bit.

If this was government action, get those returns in ASAP as long as they're accurate. You are at the point where you may need the services of a lawyer . . . but it is imperative that you get the returns in, because the assumption is that you have something to hide until you do.

Do not be pressured into filing bankruptcy in a panic; if the situation is that dire, you have plenty of time to weigh options first.

Triage your bills using worst-case survival assumptions in the meantime:

-- Housing
-- Secured assets
-- Job-related expenses (gas & car)
-- Food

Most of these bills can (and in the interim should) be paid with money orders and/or cash. Post office money orders are cheap and useful.

Ignore unsecured debts. Call the company and tell them your situation, but don't send them money unless all of the above is paid. The idea is to prevent "snowballing" of the problem.

Just take a deep breath or two. Then start making phone calls.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I just got off the phone with the bank. They say it's the CA Franchise Tax Board (FTB), aka "the state income tax people," putting a levy on my account.

My income taxes for 2000-2002 are still being worked on. I did a lot of day trading in those years, and E*Trade lost some of the transactions.

Any advice, given we now know it's a government agency fscking me over?

[patoadam]

I will give you all the advice I can think of, at the risk of telling you stuff that you already know or that might be wrong.

If it's not already too late, get your money out of the accounts that are being sucked dry, even if you have to sell securities to do it.

What on earth is your accountant doing still working on your 2000, 2001, and 2002 taxes? Maybe you need a competent accountant, or maybe you can do it yourself with TurboTax. If you took two extensions like you were supposed to, you have until October 15 to file for 2002.

E*Trade sent you three types of statements:
1) trade confirmations
2) monthly statements
3) year-end statements, including 1099 forms

All of these are available online, and you got paper copies of at least some of these as well. Are all three (or six) types of statements incorrect? If one of them is right, you could use it to do your taxes (and attach a written explanation of why it disagrees with the 1099 forms that the IRS gets). If all of these agree, why do you think E*Trade lost some of your records?

If you bought and sold the same security repeatedly, perhaps you were in a "wash sale" situation and didn't realize it, which could explain why the E*Trade records seem wrong?

YMMV. I do not have professional expertise in this area, so this advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

Sounds like you need professional advice, which you may not be able to afford. I know you have at least one lawyer friend. Good luck.

well, hell

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

The MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do, aside from immediately contacting FTB, is to successfully file your back tax returns AT ONCE. Little is possible until you do this.

If you cannot file your returns because you can't prove some of the transactions happened, now you probably need a lawyer. And not just to deal with FTB . . . quite possibly to deal with your incompetent accountant as well.

1) stop payment on all your existing checks, no sense in having them bounce because the money's gone

2) According to FTB you (or someone) had to ignore several efforts at contact before this happened:

http://www.taxes.ca.gov/pastduebus.html

3) One of the Consumer Credit Counseling services had some useful advice: http://www.cccssacto.org/tips/tax.html

Go read it. It's a useful summary.

4) The FTB's own processes for collecting unpaid tax are at:

http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub54.pdf

See page 5 for full information on levies . . . you have 10 days in which to contact FTB before the money actually disappears . . . but you should get in contact with FTB immediately. ("Call the Board employee whose name is shown on the Notice of Levy.") You personally should call at once. _Don't_ trust your accountant to handle this or anything else from now on.

"Significant economic hardship" is a valid ground for reversing a levy.

6) You are keeping full documentation of your contacts with FTB, right? And your accountant? And the lawyer you need to hire? And E-Trade? _Document everything_.

7) You can contact FTB's Web site for a full explanation, individualized to your case, by visiting the following URL with documents in hand:

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/Bills/index.html

8) You can make an arrangement for payment ("Offer in Compromise") IF your tax returns are filed AND you agree with FTB on how much tax is owed.

If you don't agree with FTB on how much tax is owed, you need to show FTB why this is the case. They can't take your word for it, they need proof.

This is why your returns MUST be filed. The assumption is that since you haven't filed, you must have something major to hide.

Re: well, hell

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Two more things:

1) Someone in the bureaucracy on YOUR side (in theory): CA has a Taxpayer Advocate program where you can get advice on what FTB is doing to you.

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/aboutFTB/taxpayer_advocate/index.html

If you are unsuccessful in your efforts to deal with FTB, immediately contact the Taxpayer Advocate and they may be able to help.

2) You cannot afford to ignore this in the hopes it will go away. You cannot afford to take the chance that important mail regarding this case is being lost or misplaced or thrown out somehow.

Everything can and will be fine IF you go take care of it and continue to follow up. If you tune out and don't follow up, "You snooze, YOU LOSE."

I'm sure you can get it all worked out. Best of luck to you on all of it.

And do drop me a private E-mail sometime when you're much less busy than you are now . . . meow

Re: well, hell

[figmo.livejournal.com]

This is just so effing frustrating. I did call the FTB yesterday, which is when I found out the guy on my case (yes, I know his name) only works 7am-5pm M-Th. Since Monday's a state holiday, I can't do a thing till 7am Tuesday, and you can bet I'll be on the phone at 7:05am that day.