So I ended up owing a bunch of taxes last year, both Fed and State…
I’ve been paying both off monthly since April. No argument; I owe the money, and I’m paying it off.
Every month though, idle curiosity gets me: what if I refuse to pay off the State taxes? I no longer live in that state… what could they do to me if, instead of a payment, I sent them a photocopy of my middle finger? Could they reach clear across the country and sieze part of my pay like the Feds can?
If it matters, the State in question is California, and I’m now in Maine.
Again, I’m not trying to avoid paying them… just curious.
I went to grad school with someone who, due to a combination of stupidity and wishful thinking, moved away from CA with an outstanding tax liability that had progressed into a tax lien by the time we met. I’m not sure exactly what measures the CA government employed to collect the money. I mainly heard about it in the context of it showing up on his credit report, not something you want to have happen to you at a time in your life that is characterized by frequent moves that require you to convince a landlord to rent to you, even though you lack full time employment. So yes, it can follow you around the country. I believe that CA can even put your name in a database that the IRS and other states will check before issuing you a tax refund, and the refund will be re-routed to CA instead.
According to a tax-related forum I frequent, CA is working on a new policy. Any banks that have a presence in CA must report to CA information about account-holders anywhere in the US. (So, if you have a national bank like BofA, then CA knows about your Maine account). They can use that information to go after your funds.
Even without that rule, states can still go through a process to levy accounts.
