California Board of Equlization -AAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

The BBQ Pit
1

Holy Jebus!!!

My wife has an old tax bill, from 2014. It is a couple grand. An exorbitant sum, but that is another rant.

I have the monies they require. I am willing to give them said monies. Therein lies the pain. I can mail the payment, but it states that additional interest and penalties may have accrued. Multiply X (they never really say which amount on the bill X is…) by 0.583%

They have a ‘pay online’ website. Or least, they pretend to.

It should be called ‘PSYCH!!!’ or 'Gotcha YA!!! ’

My wife’s bill has an ‘express login code’. This would lead one to believe that you can enter this code, be taken to the account and pay the bill. This is not the case.

I get to the page that has the words ‘express login’. Here you would think you find a field where you enter the code on your tax bill. You would be wrong.

First, you have to click ‘make a payment’. OK, I click that. Then it asks for my credit card info. Here is where I get worried. I am entering my card info and am NOT linked to account. Could I end up paying someone else’s bill?? I get nervous and call the person listed as help on the tax bill. Her name is Renee. I am able to get her on the phone. She is very nice and seems to want to help. Alas, she cannot.

With her on the line, we go back through the process. I enter my cc info, then it asks me NOT for the express login code, but for the Letter Number and the Voucher number. This would lead you to believe that a letter number and voucher number would be on the bill.

:smack:

They are not on the bill. The *REQUIRED information *to pay the bill online is NOT on the bill. The login info IS on the bill but you never get to the place where you can enter it.

Renee apologizes. I ask if there is an office where I can go to pay the bill/ She says there IS! I ask if the office is open past 5 PM. She says it it not. :(:(:frowning:

Fine, I will mail the payment. Renee does the math for me and tells me how much to make the check out for.

Fine, except that we moved a couple of months ago and I have not yet located the box with my checkbook. In a digital age, I thought I would be able to use my card for everything. Except California BPE outsourced their website design the Marquis de Sade.

Fuck.

2

…

jesus.

3

A lot of us wouldn’t want to pay with a credit card anyway since we are cheapskates:

http://www.boe.ca.gov/elecsrv/payment.htm

For a couple grand bill that is $46

You might go to your bank branch on Saturday morning (if you don’t work then) and buy a money order.

4

The Post Office sells money orders too, though I believe the max amount allowed on them is $1,000.

5

Why wasn’t the bill paid in 2014 when it was due?

6

BOE, since 2014… color me impressed they haven’t issued a warrant for her arrest.

Those are sales taxes, they were never her money, and they have zero pity for any inconvenience they cause. That said, pay them, you can estimate within a dollar or so and overpay it by $5. Dicking with the BOE is not worth the unholy hell they can unleash. The IRS are fucking kittens compared to the BOE.

7

Why did you wait all the way to post 5 before asking this question?

8

He was building his level of recreational outrage.

9

I have no excuse. I throw myself on the mercy of the Dope.

(That’s the answer to the question: “Why didn’t you put D’Anconia on Ignore in 2014, when it was due?”)

10

There’s a couple of answers to that question.

  1. None of your fucking business, and

  2. Why are you concerned?

Hope that clears that up for ya D’AskingQuestions.

11

I had a similar/but not quite situation. Back in January this year I copped a speeding fine, so jumped onto the website to pay the fine in installments.

But the website showed I had an outstanding fine AND A WARRANT from 20 years ago. WTF? I had totally forgotten about the fine back then**, and despite renewing my licence a few times, and registration on my car, it had never been followed up by the Road Transport People.

So I contacted them and entered into a payment-agreement to pay the fine off in 10 installments…which was fine for the FIRST one, but then I got a letter saying they were changing the payment system and to wait until I heard from them again before making another payment.

That was in February. Not a word from them since. I have tried ringing (twice) but all the clerks can tell me is that they are still trying to figure out a payment system, and in the interim, all the fine payments are on hold. Whatevs. :smiley:

**Before you ask D’AskingQuestions, none of your fucking business. :smiley:

12

Wait, the department that handles taxes in CA is really called the “Board of Equalization” ? I thought the rant was going to include some 1984 or Brazil-esque tie in to such a stupid name.

13

I hear ya’

I sold/bought early last year, since then I have gotten about 6 adjusted tax bills. I’ve tried my best to line them all up and understand what I am being charged for, but it’s a fools errand. Thankfully I can afford to pay the bills (they are not a small sum!), but I would rather, oh, I don’t know, not give them all my money every time I turn around. Geez, I swear every time I pay I ask “Are we done?” and they can’t really tell me.

I have experienced the same online problems you describe, man it’s a crappy web experience. Instead I just drive downtown to the office and pay in person. Beautiful building, classic architecture, dozen and dozens of lines, but only one open because nobody goes there in person. It’s a grampa thing to do, but that way I avoid any possible glitch or snafu online.

14

It’s a term of art relating to property tax assessments (though it seems to be unknown outside the western U.S.) Nothing to do with redistribution or whatever.

15

Could be worse. Could be Florida.

16

California has more than one state agency dealing with taxes; for example another agency collects income taxes.

17

That would be the “Franchise Tax Board,” for those that are interested.

For a state that has Silicon Valley in it, and that prides itself on innovation and tech, you’d think they could put together a decent, easy to use website that could handle payments via credit card/debit. It’s not that hard to do - my county has a great system that works well, AFAIK. My experiences with it have been painless.

kaylasdad99 - No excuse. The rest of us have had D’asshole on “Ignore” for years.