In our state, which has high taxes, being over 65, we are entitled to a senior exemption from part of our real estate taxes (which is a BIG amount) and since our school taxes are a separate real estate tax, we are also entitled to a partial exemption from same from our state. In speaking with friends in other counties this is handled by the local township, village, or city and is a simple process. In our county it is handled by the county and they seem to make it hard in an attempt to make it harder to obtain the exemption.
I understand that they have to make sure that those obtaining these credits are entitled to them but if I was not an accountant I would have a problem with the paperwork in past years and even more so this year.
First year we were entitled to the exemption I put together the info we seemed to need and we went to one of the meetings that the county holds in libraries around the county about the exemption. We need to fill in a form that is actually pretty straight forward. We also need to supply copies of W2s, 1099s etc. to prove our income – okay not too bad from the prior year . If our income was under the maximum amount allowed that would be all we need to do. My mom cannot understand why I scream about this process as she has a 1099 for interest, one for some small dividends and one from Social Security and that is all she needs to make copies of and send with her application form. Have I mentioned that the paperwork needs to be filed annually?
Since our income is higher than the maximum amount allowed, we need to provide our medical costs paid by us to bring our income under the maximum. Sounds easy, right, make copies of the checks or charge slips that paid our medical insurance, doctors, pharmacies, eyeglasses, etc.? No, they will not accept canceled checks or credit card slips as proof. We have to get a printout for the year from each of the medical insurance companies, doctors, etc. that we paid money to during the year. Pharmacy – no problem, the understood what we needed. (Maybe because they are in our state?) Dentist – no problem, he printed our our payments file. Medical Insurance companies – ha, ha, ha. I have now dealt with 3 of them trying to get printouts – and now have done so over multiple years. The first year I only had to get same from the one (ACA) insurance company we had both shared the year before. After several calls I finally had what I needed and I made a note of what they called it to help the following year. Second year I had to get same for us, and husband had switched to Medicare during the prior year – so I had to get printouts from his supplemental policy and his medications (Part D) policy as well. (Actual Medicare paid is shown on the Social Security form and they accept that.) Since this is all done towards the end of the year using information from a year before, when I got the info last year my Medical insurance co had also sent the payments for last year as I had already switched to Medicare and I held onto same for the filing this year. This year I managed to get the printout for our two medication policies on the first try. It took 4 tries – the last by mail with a copy of the printout that they sent last year - to get a copy of same from our supplemental policy company.
As, I mentioned the first year we were applying we went in and met with a person from the assessor''s office about this. https://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/10/dealing-with-county-bureaucracy.html In addition to all the paperwork that was listed and we had with us, they wanted other paperwork. The employee said that our income was too high. I pointed out that we have medical expenses that bring the income down and well into range. “But these have to be medical expenses that YOU pay, not someone else!” Who the heck else is paying our medical costs but us? She took the info we had and I get to get a form from IRS showing the W2s etc that they had on record for us also. (This is a very valuable form that I did not know about before this. A client of mine between moving and losing her husband had not filed her /their income taxes. She filed later ones, but not that one. I pushed her to her file it as she normally has a sizable refund due, but then she could not find the information forms she had been mailed – this form allowed us to get copies of them so her return could be prepared. In addition husband is having a fight with an online payment processor which wants proof of his corporation's “Social Security number” - it does not have one. They need a notice or bill sent within the past 6 months (umm, we pay on time, only if one has not paid would one get either – do they really want to do business with people who don't pay their bills?) showing the Social Security number. I sent away for this form as it shows the Business ID number of the business and will dated within 6 months – I hope that will resolve the matter.)
Last year since I knew what had to be done I collected the papers, made copies and we mailed them – certified mail – to the county over a month and a half in advance of the due date and relaxed waiting for the notice to be sent of the exemption we were entitled to. We received a robocall from the County Executive that we had filed for the program before, but had not filed for “this” (last) year yet. I had to take mom to the doctor and this office cannot be reached by telephone. I tried calling anyway, but got the usual - “We do not have time to speak to anyone. There is extremely limited parking here, so don't bother to come here.” message. (I am not exaggerating – that is how their phone is answered and there is a currently a movement by higher county officials to make them take calls.- the parking part is correct, it is almost impossible to park to go to them.) I tried again later in the day while mom was in with her doctor and there was a message that the call had been in error. Turns out that instead of calling 3000 something seniors, every one of 400,000 plus land owners had been called. Per the information on TV that night if one had a receipt from the assessor's office one was okay. There had been a line 2 hours plus long of people running in with the problem. The next day we made an additional copy of the application and all the attachments and drove there – husband dropped me off and drove about 5 blocks away to a store's parking lot to wait for me. They did have our application. They could not give me a receipt as it had been received by mail, but they did have it. And we did get our partial exemption. We decided that in the future I would walk the application in to them, while husband waited in car.
Knowing I would need all of this I started collecting and requesting the information earlier in the year this time and had it all ready for when we received the application in August. After we did all the rest of the problems that I have posted about with mom happened. I worked a bit on the exemption when I could. I thought that it would easy this third time, but they added to what they need. If one has business income (and we each have a very small professional business – both with losses in 2018 the year we are giving them for the 2020-2021 real estate tax year) one has to provide proof of all income and expenses. This actually turned out to be harder and more time consuming than any IRS or state (of 5 states I have done income taxes for) audit!!
Husband's was fairly straight forward – he gets paid through an online company and the printouts from same show the income and the fee taken from same. (His income was not high enough for a 1099 form last year.) 8 photocopies (he did not get paid every month) took care of the proof of income and of the fees paid to get paid. He had maybe 3 other expenses plus car expense and Internet expenses. I had a 1099 from one client and deposit slips plus copies of checks received from my other clients. I cannot reveal names of same so I blacked out all identifying income of clients. I have a variety of expenses – office supplies, exams I have to take, computer, subway etc plus my share of car expenses and Internet expenses. I had to copy every gas receipt, every repair receipt, car insurance, etc. for the car and also all of our Internet service bills. I then used the copy of the breakdown of the car expenses that I used for our tax return to show same and had to do a breakdown of our Internet service expenses for them. I scanned each page of the entire form and attachments into the computer as I added them to the stack of papers. I also wrote a summary of what was enclosed – that was 6 pages long – and put a title page on each of the sections of papers, plus a cover letter. I know I passed 180 pages!
Then I went to attach the papers to each other – I did not own a clip large enough and even my special “large stack of papers” stapler would not work. I ended up putting the application and main papers in one clipped package and the business income and expense proof in a second one.
I finished this over last weekend and we planned to take it this past Monday to the assessor's office as we wanted their receipt for it (plus it would cost a fortune to mail). So, last Friday husband's front tooth fell out. Our dentist retired and while we had 4 possibilities, we did not know who to go to. We are doing a colonial craft show this coming Saturday and he really needed this tooth replaced. We decided to go with a local office that we pass which has good reviews which has a lab in it and takes walkins. Husband had me call on Friday and the phone kept ringing. I finally called their office in the county west of us and was told that the office near us was closed until Monday. My already panicked husband was in that state all weekend. Remember – we planned to bring the application for the exemption to the county on Monday. Monday morning I started calling the dentist's office at 9:40 and it just rang. I called the other office again and was told that someone would be there by 10 am. I started calling at 10:10 and either the line was busy or it did not connect. I should mention that it was heavily raining. At 10:30 I called the other office again, apologized and explained. She said that she would have them call us. They did – they were having troubles with their lines. Big problem – dentist was away until the following Saturday (still 3 days away as I write this). I explained why we needed to come in. At last a break!!! The technician was in – Monday his only day – and he might be able to add the teeth (there was another one out and ignored while waiting for this front tooth to go) for us – but we would have to come right away. We did. Very nice receptionist and technician. After the inevitable paperwork the tech took a mold and we were told it would be ready by 2 pm – same day!! I went to the desk to pay for the work (much less than we thought it would cost), but due to the telephone lines problem, the credit card would not process. I was trying to figure out if we had enough in checking to cover the cost, when she decided to call the other office – she read the info to the lady there who had been of so much help and the receipt would be waiting for us to sign when returned.
It was just around noon. Husband decided that we should go to the assessors' office and deliver the paperwork. Of course when I was taking same with us as we left for the dentist, he told me to leave it home and we had to go home and get it. I had figured that the assessor's office would be jammed and we decided if I was not done by 1:30 I would leave so we get his teeth. (He has an older set that he was wearing.) I also figured that since it was lunch time it would be even worse as people would come during same and less employees would be working. I went in and there were less than 20 people ahead of me. (Texted husband same.)
At first I was amazed how fast it was going. One of the 3 employees working at this spent the entire time I was there with one woman who apparently had a real mess. One of them was seeing people, collecting paperwork that was right and seeing person after person. The third seemed to be a supervisor. I happened to be seated near him and could hear what was going on. There was a man there delivering papers for some other matter of the assessor's office and he was wasting time – he could not understand to give the employee the needed papers and had to go and make photocopies (they had a free machine in the room) – the employee then took a couple of people dropping off their exemption papers. Then the fellow came back – he kept asking if all the papers were right and the employee kept telling him that it was not his decision. The fellow went to make more copies. I turned to the employee and said “You have great patience.” He smiled back at and nodded. He then took someone again. He was about to take someone else, when the fellow came back. This threw the numbers off. He had been about to see #79 and it had disappeared off the list of numbers to call. He told the other employees to call that number, but they forgot and called #80 – who nicely let 79 go ahead of her. Then when they called 81- 80 went. There was then a discussion between the two regular employees – you take 81, I'll take 82 – me. But someone with something from before came back. I stayed near where they working to make sure that I was next.
The employee asked for the papers and I handed them to her and explained it was too large to put together - not for her – a rubber band around the two and a huge clip on top and it was done. She handed me a computer issued receipt and it was done!
As I was about to text to husband to come back to the building and pick me up – he texted asking if I was going to see someone soon. I texted back. He picked me up and we went back to the dentist.
The teeth were perfect! I signed the copy of the credit card slip, took our copy and we left. Two major problems resolved at the same time! And we now know of a dentist to go to.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
When there is a huge problem – do it step by step. Expect that things will go wrong or be different than last you time you did the same thing. Take advantage of down time (in this case I had worked on finishing the exemption form in short bursts over the weekend between shopping for his younger niece's gift, meals out and movie night -plus the run to the assessor's office while waiting for his teeth). Somehow the work always seems to get done. The paperwork was due by January 2, but we wanted it in before the holidays.
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