Power in the hands of fools

[Richard Baker]

I received a delinquent filing notice from the Division of Municipal Income Tax requesting that I file a 2008 return. Of course it has the threat of "Administrative Subpoena" a usual method for the city to communicate with it citizens other than election time.

In the letter they proudly informed me that they were in a joint partnership with City of Cleveland and the Central Collection Agency that would allow the Income Tax Division to access IRS records.

I’ll list some of the problems I’ve observed with City of Lakewood’s Division of Municipal Income Tax group:

• In 2007 I file and inform them I changed residence in October to Pennsylvania on their own form, they don’t record the fact because they are only interested is your money not their service.
• They spend taxpayer’s money to solicit taxes and threaten people who clearly aren’t in their jurisdiction or authority to tax and were informed on their own forms they had changed residence.
• When the benevolent City Council created this monster their excuse was to save money and independently the new department would increase revenues and cost less. We know have them join partnerships at a fee to obtain IRS information that they didn’t have access to before.
• How in the world was the Division of Municipal Income Tax going to improve tax collection without this information on rental property? Oh, that’s right they pass an ordinance requiring landlords to report who rented from them. Ah more forms equals a bigger department based on false promises of increased revenues.
• Back to the partnership, it seems it didn’t realize that I filed a IRS income tax return in Pennsylvania in 2008.

When was the last time a cost analysis performed on this department by the City’s confused but well meaning council? I especially like the garbage pickup, change the method, but don’t consider privatizing the service to save personnel cost and benefits.

Getting back to taxes and power in the hands of fools, how many people have been served “Administrative Subpoenas” by a tax department that is inept and inert? I have friends that live in the City that have filed and received notices for not filing. If you’re delinquent, I wouldn’t get excited the tax department is too busy pursuing people who have filed or don’t live in the city anymore.

It would be interesting for everyone who had an experience with the city’s tax department list their problems here.

[Jim DeVito]

I received a subpoena to the kangaroo court RITA set up in Bay Village. They claimed I have not paid my taxes in 6 years. You'll note I have not lived in that RITA city for 6 years!! I can not figure out how they screwed that up as all my personal information the government has is up to date. I guess what cracks me up is that they waited 6 years to send me a letter (that I picked up at my moms house a week after the court date )

[Ivor Karabatkovic]

I think everyone in Lakewood received one of those notices!

I received one of them too, and I have my tax return forms sitting in front of me because I'm filing for my FAFSA.

I received one many years ago saying I didn't pay my taxes. The only problem was that I was 15 years old and was never employed at that point.

A call or a stop into City Hall will fix everything, it's not rocket science.

[Gary Rice]

Dad and I have both been pleased with the people at the Lakewood tax office. I do believe that it is best to go down there directly when questions arise. The service experience there has been a very positive one for us.

[Richard Baker]

I must have failed making the point that the "tax office" is wasting both Lakewood citizens’ time and they are wasting taxpayer dollars time by pursuing tax collection on people who already because the can't manage their own records. I have no desire to take the time to go to a City Hall and talk to a bunch of inept and inert civil servants in a tax office who obviously use the shotgun method of collection rather than identifying and pursuing the people who don’t pay. You may be assured this type of collection method results in poor tax collection record. If citizens have a low expectation from their government then they deserve the poor level of services it provides.