Owing Taxes: We Are Here to Help
June 7, 2011
When you owe money to anyone, it can be stressful. When you owe money to the government, it can be very stressful. If you receive a bill from the Indiana Department of Revenue stating you owe money, you have options. And most importantly, the Indiana Department of Revenue is here to help you through this stressful collection process.
If you get a bill from the Indiana Department of Revenue, the tax collection process follows like this:
- If the Indiana Department of Revenue finds that you have an unpaid tax due, a bill is mailed to you. You have 60 days to either pay the bill or dispute the bill if you don’t think it is correct. The important thing is for you to contact the Department within that 60-day period. If you do not, you have lost your opportunity to dispute the bill.
- If you don’t take either of these actions, you will be mailed an updated bill and given 10 days to pay the amount due. You really need to pay the bill by this stage because additional penalties apply if the bill goes to the next stage, which is when the bill becomes a warrant that goes to the county sheriff.
If you are contacting the Indiana Department of Revenue because you do not have the money to pay the bill, the Department can work with you. If you owe more than $100 in individual taxes or more than $500 in business taxes, you might be eligible for a payment plan. If you would like to see if you are eligible to set up a payment plan online, visit www.intaxpay.in.gov
It’s important to know that the bill will not go away and Indiana Department of Revenue can’t help with a payment plan once the bill becomes a tax warrant.
- When a tax warrant is issued, the county sheriff can legally auction your property, or levy your bank account. The tax debt also will be recorded on your credit report.
The longer the collection process goes on, the more serious the consequences become, such as penalties and interest being added to your tax bill, or your tax bill being sent to a professional collection agency.
If you would like to speak with a bilingual representative from the Department of Revenue about the collection process, please call (317) 232-2240 (press 2 for Spanish) from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. You can submit questions via e-mail to jevans@dor.in.gov You may also visit our Spanish Web site www.impuestos.in.gov/
To return to Señora Hinojosa’s tax blog, click here.
If you have any suggestions for this blog, please e-mail those suggestions to Señora Hinojosa at feedback@dor.in.gov
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- Find Indiana tax forms.
- Know when I will receive my tax refund.
- File my taxes as an Indiana resident while I am in the military, but my spouse is not an Indiana resident.
- Take the renter's deduction.
- Pay my tax bill in installments.
- Claim a gambling loss on my Indiana return.
- Have more time to file my taxes and I think I will owe the Department.
