Received GA Income Tax Notice of Penalty and Late Tax

[5Miler]

The mail just showed up today and both DGF and I received a notice from the Georgia Department of Revenue of late taxes due complete with charges for penalties and interest. Mine notice is for $1,155.80 and DGF is for just over $500. They provide next to no information in the mailing, just a demand for payment. I opened a personal account on the GA DOR website but again, it give nothing except an entry showing my return was received timely and a PDF copy of the notice I got in the mail today.

I haven't had to pay state tax in GA for many years now due to the exemptions given to seniors. As I am over 65 I receive a exemption for $65K of pension/retirement income and GA does not tax SS income. That pretty much wraps up my entire income stream.

Income for 2023 consisted of:

$21,403 Fed taxable amount for Social Security out of $43,907 total received.
$30,285 IRA distributions taxable Fed only as they were Roth conversions
$ 1,361 Pension - Pathetic but only taxable at Fed level
$ 255 Ordinary Dividend
$ 28 Taxable Interest
$53,330.00 Total AGI on Fed return.

I had an additional $8K Roth distribution and $240 in Qualified Dividends not taxable by Fed or State.

TurboTax shows my GA state Taxable Income at $-9,400 for Tax Year 2023 which represents my GA standard deduction of $5,400 plus my senior bump of $1,300 and my Personal Exemption of $2,700. The entire Fed AGI amount of $53,330 shows as a negative adjustment on my GA return as mentioned above due to Senior retirement income and SS exemptions.

DGF's numbers are similar but include less Federally taxable income due to ACA income games.

I'm at a loss to see where my error could be so just wondering if anyone else from Georgia is having a similar issue or can see where I might have made an error in my TurboTax return.

 

[timmar]

I am in GA and not a tax expert by any means, but could the issue be the Roth conversion?

This is from IT 511 Rev. 12.06.23 (GA tax instructions)
"Individual Retirement Accounts. The provisions concerning taxability and conversion from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA are the same for Georgia and the Internal Revenue Service."

Maybe the way you characterized it on your taxes caused their system to get confused. Perhaps you didn't count it in your GA Retirement Income exclusion even though doing so would still keep you under the $65k?

This is just a thought. Hopefully it is not too painful to fix.

 

[5Miler]

I am in GA and not a tax expert by any means, but could the issue be the Roth conversion?

This is from IT 511 Rev. 12.06.23 (GA tax instructions)
"Individual Retirement Accounts. The provisions concerning taxability and conversion from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA are the same for Georgia and the Internal Revenue Service."

Maybe the way you characterized it on your taxes caused their system to get confused. Perhaps you didn't count it in your GA Retirement Income exclusion even though doing so would still keep you under the $65k?

This is just a thought. Hopefully it is not too painful to fix.

Thanks for reviewing my little tax issue. Regarding the Roth conversion, I will double check that I did characterize it correctly. I have been doing them for several years now without issue and DGF did not do a conversion at all due to limiting taxable income for ACA subsidies.

I will try to call the GA Dept of Revenue today to see if I can get clarification on the issue. I'm confident it is something stupid either on my part or within the GA DOR. I did monitor my tax situation with several online calculators last year to make sure my Roth conversions didn't result in excessive (to me) taxes and my results there matched exactly to my results with TurboTax when completing my taxes which is why I'm so surprised. I did the same with DGF during the year to monitor her taxable income for ACA purposes as I have done for the previous nine years.

 

[Mark1]

.....and GA does not tax SS income....

Colorado recently passed a new law on not taxing SS. However, I recently discovered that only the amount of SS taxed by the Feds is tax free by the state of CO, and not the entire amount. I have no idea what GA tax code is on SS.

 

[5Miler]

.....and GA does not tax SS income....

Colorado recently passed a new law on not taxing SS. However, I recently discovered that only the amount of SS taxed by the Feds is tax free by the state of CO, and not the entire amount. I have no idea what GA tax code is on SS.

GA just flat does not tax Social Security benefits.

 

[SevenUp]

.....and GA does not tax SS income....

Colorado recently passed a new law on not taxing SS. However, I recently discovered that only the amount of SS taxed by the Feds is tax free by the state of CO, and not the entire amount. I have no idea what GA tax code is on SS.

It would be very strange if CO doesn't tax the federally taxable portion but does tax the non-federally-taxable portion of SS. That would mean someone whose only income is, say, $20K in SS would pay CO tax on all $20K but someone with $20K SS and $1 million other income would pay CO tax on only $3K of the $20K.

 

[5Miler]

I may have figured it out not that GA DOR has been any help at all. I tried to call GA-DOR at the number given in the letter but they are not able to take any calls due to high call volume according to the recording on the line. No opportunity to request a call back or to leave a message. Just given dial tone.

Tried to use the online form to appeal the assessment but when I enter my "Letter ID", it comes back as non-existent or past the 30 day deadline for appeals. The letter is dated May 16 and I just received it yesterday, May 28. That's not 30 days to me but then again, I don't know the new math used these days.

Fortunately, I did a search and found a link to download the PDF for the Appeals form which I can complete and mail in to GA-DOR. I then started researching what could possibly be the issue with my tax return and using an online calculator, I finally figured out that if I didn't show my $30K Roth conversion as non-taxable for GA I would owe GA $1,122.92 and the bill from GA-DOR is for $1,123.00.

I checked DGF's return the same way and it I didn't show her Rollover IRA distribution of $12,900 as non-taxable for GA she would owe GA $524.27 and the bill from GA-DOR is $524.00.

I'm not a strong believer in coincidence so I am confident the issue is I didn't provide Georgia with copies of our 1099-R forms for the IRA distributions. So I suppose I will spend some time writing up the appeals and submitting them with copies of said 1099-R forms and hopefully in a few months I will hear back from them. Neither 1099-R showed GA state taxes withheld so I'm sure I didn't submit them with the tax forms.

 

[pb4uski]

So I'm confused. Did you file Georgia returns or not file because you had not tax due?

 

[5Miler]

So I'm confused. Did you file Georgia returns or not file because you had not tax due?

Yes, I snail mail a copy of taxes to Georgia DOR for DGF and myself just to show we don't owe taxes. Apparently they might have taken issue with missing 1099-R forms this year. Just a guess on my part at this time.

I have written up my appeal so far, adding my 1099-Rs (all of them) and requesting a conference with a representative to resolve this matter. I'll complete the appeal for DGF tonight as it will be much easier now that I have done one. Oh, and the online PDF is hosed too as it will not print from the link on the form. It keeps saying I need to select the tax I'm appealing and add my tax id. After doing that 20 times and failing, I was able to print it via Windows 11. Gubbermint!

 

[5Miler]

Apparently I may not have been at fault here. It seems a few thousand Georgia seniors have been hit with similar letters with no information, just demanding a tax payment. A local TV station has been able to finally get a response from the Georgia Department of Revenue that the cause was a software issue and will be reversed within the next two weeks.

Incorrect letters demanding thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes sent to hundreds of GA retirees

The letters are real, but the tax debts are not.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[Al18]

So there’s not a single person at GA Income tax office responsible for checking the tax calculation accuracy? Sounds like it’s time for a reorganization.

 

[5Miler]

DGF and I both checked our online accounts with Georgia Tax Center and I'm relieved to see that both of us show a $0 balance for assessments due. No explanation or any other indication that the assessment notifications were in error, just a zero balance due. Here's hoping this saga has come to an end but as with any issue with the Department of Revenue, you never know for sure.

 

[GLM]

We were caught up in this too. DH was really thrown by the $7000 demand. I said they must have lost our senior exemption form. Online we could not submit an objection, website said we were past the 30 day limit to object. We were not. The letter was about 12 days old when we got it and we tried to log in and call that day (Too many calls and they disconnected us TWICE. ) Mailed out a letter about two weeks ago requesting delivery verification from the USPS. the letter is still out there wandering the state. DH got thru via phone at 8 am on Wednesday. They verified that there was a glitch in the computer regsrding the senior exemption form . She reviewed our case and the online site now says we owe $0.

Found this article May 31th. The state has been very quiet about the error. I wonder how many will just pay up.

Incorrect letters demanding thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes sent to hundreds of GA retirees

The letters are real, but the tax debts are not.

www.wsbtv.com

 

[frank]

I did my grandaughter's taxes this year and it came back with a correction that said she owed 1200 ish in federal taxes. they gave the reason that the information about grandaughter and children did not match the irs records. same situation, letter, no explanation, just a number to call and a code to refer to. played the phone game with no response, then got an agent that looked up her records on their computer and said oops, my bad and they had been having this type of problem since they were using a new system this year. after month of sweating it out, doing paperwork, making phone call we got oops sorry.

 

[imnontrad]

.....and GA does not tax SS income....

Colorado recently passed a new law on not taxing SS. However, I recently discovered that only the amount of SS taxed by the Feds is tax free by the state of CO, and not the entire amount. I have no idea what GA tax code is on SS.

Actually, there is a 20K exemption for a pension OR SS.

 

[Perryinva]

Another reason to file electronically and avoid a human prompted error. Though free electronic filing for many states cost something extra, whereas paper filing is the cost of a stamp.

 

[5Miler]

We were caught up in this too. DH was really thrown by the $7000 demand. I said they must have lost our senior exemption form. Online we could not submit an objection, website said we were past the 30 day limit to object. We were not. The letter was about 12 days old when we got it and we tried to log in and call that day (Too many calls and they disconnected us TWICE. ) Mailed out a letter about two weeks ago requesting delivery verification from the USPS. the letter is still out there wandering the state. DH got thru via phone at 8 am on Wednesday. They verified that there was a glitch in the computer regsrding the senior exemption form . She reviewed our case and the online site now says we owe $0.

Found this article May 31th. The state has been very quiet about the error. I wonder how many will just pay up.

Incorrect letters demanding thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes sent to hundreds of GA retirees

The letters are real, but the tax debts are not.

www.wsbtv.com

Looks like we performed identical steps. Our return receipt from the Post Office is also floating around somewhere as we sure haven't seen it. DGF and I are just relieved to see our tax accounts now show zero due and we have mentally put this issue behind us.