Picture this: It’s 1am and you’re getting off of your server shift at the local restaurant. You stop to get a drink after work and your bank card is declined. There is money in the account so you login to your banking app. There’s a withdrawal listed you didn’t make. “I didn’t make a $100 withdrawal from my account! Oh wait! Now’s there’s a hold on the account!” The immediate thought is fraud! Banks now have fraud protection so you’ll call in the morning and figure this out. Only, when you call in the morning it’s the Department of Taxation and Finance in the City of New York (NY DTF)! They have “cleaned out” your bank account! Taken every penny you have (which was under $1,000) and have put a hold on the account for $2,000 ($1,266 in original taxes owed and $734 in penalties accruing daily since the infraction)! The true story is to follow.
This indeed is the person next door; the individual living paycheck to paycheck and attending school to make a better life for themselves. The person in question lived in New York for two years (January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021 and is now back in their state of birth. There was a letter sent to the new address, it was acted upon, in good faith. The Department of Taxation and Finance in New York State has this person’s email address, phone number, and current address and chose NO contact! They acted like thugs in the night reaching grasping and taking everything this individual worked for this year. Without a support system this person would in fact be homeless in the next month. No payment plan offered, no contact made, no reason to bankrupt a person who reasonably reacted to one other notice and would gladly have acquiesced to a payment plan. Someone who has student loans, works for a living, and can’t even afford a car.
This same story happens to many Americans every year both with the IRS and state entities. Actions like this have consequences. This is not a large sum of money comparatively. It can and does make individuals “go off the deep end”. The Department of Taxation and Finance in the City of New York prey upon people because they can’t and won’t defend themselves. They have neither the expertise nor the financial resources to combat such an attack by a government entity that has the ability to confiscate, freeze, and leave a taxpayer in destitute with virtually no choice but to pay as the penalties continue to accrue daily! All this happens to the taxpayer with the power given to government by the very taxpayers who contributed their money.
According to taxcure.com, in the last couple of years, New York State has been sending out more audit requests than usual. For instance, in the first nine months of 2021, the NY DTF sent out nearly 150,000 audit notices. The next year the number was even higher—the NY DTF reports that they did over 750,000 audits for tax years 2022 to 2023, leading to claiming over $3.2 billion in additional tax liabilities. The state usually only audits people and businesses with over a million dollars in income, but recent audit notices have been targeting people who earn between $100,000 and $300,000. Regardless of how much you earn, you could be audited.[1]
Threats and seizures can send otherwise logical citizens into people who fear no way out. In a November 2016 article by The Ripon Forum, “Kay Council described how her husband was driven to suicide after an IRS audit of their business ultimately racked up a tax bill of over $300,000. She prevailed in court after spending some of the proceeds from Mr. Council’s life insurance policy on legal representation.”[2] She spent part of his life insurance policy in order to prevail. Let that sink in. There are many examples of overzealous enforcement by the IRS[3] due to the egregiousness of the sums of money and the shear fervent nature of the way agents pursued the taxpayers. However, in some cases, lives were ruined for lack of notice and in cases like the one discussed here this was almost the case. Consider this is not the IRS. It is a state tax organization tracking down a taxpayer for funds owed (this is not disputed herein). What is disputed is the notice given to the taxpayer: NONE! Since this taxpayer previously lived in New York and now resides in another state The NY DTF representative willingly divulged[4], via telephone, sending notice to the taxpayer at the previous New York address and to no other address. This occurred even after the taxpayer received a forwarding notice, with a tax issues, corrected her address with an agent, and was under the impression the matter was concluded.[5] At this time, The NY DTF was previously given the taxpayer’s current address, current phone number, and current email address.
With the current inflation rate and consumers struggling to make ends meet The NY DTF could track down this taxpayer’s bank accounts (two) in order to effectively bankrupt them, however couldn’t be bothered to Google their name, look into the file, make a phone call, or send an email (with no identifying information so as not to jeopardize the taxpayers identity) just asking them to contact the office. If any of those things would have been done and documented then the government entity would have a case for executing a levy against the taxpayer as they would be evading. This party chose to locate this taxpayer’s bank account (which said bank has the current address of their account holder) which was the ONLY asset this person had. They own no car, have no property, live in an apartment, and work as a restaurant server.
This government entity chose to bankrupt this individual taking all of the money in their bank accounts. After contacting the State of New York the option to unfreeze the individual’s assets and send a fax to the banks holding their funds was to pay immediately (with a credit card sending the taxpayer into more debit or to pay with a bank account that does not have a levy on it). What happens to individuals who do not have a support system able to assist in this type of situation?
An excerpt from the New York Department of Taxation and Finance’s website is below. It outlines the procedures the department uses to collect from the taxpayer and what will happen if they do not cooperate. The issue: they must first contact you for your cooperation. I am told a Freedom of Information request on the process used against this taxpayer could take up to a year to produce and will more than likely show that The Department of Taxation and Finance did not really bother to try and contact this individual and spent much more than $1,200 to recover what in essence, in the end, was the total sum of $2,000
Collection actions
The Tax Department’s Civil Enforcement Division collects tax debts after a bill has been issued. If you fail to resolve your debt, we may offset funds owed to you, or initiate the following collection actions against you:
- Tax warrants
- Levies
- Income executions
- Seizures
- NYS driver’s license suspension
- Private debt collection[6]
We’ll contact you by mail before we begin the collection process if you fail to resolve a tax bill timely. If you have an unpaid tax bill, you should pay it immediately to avoid accruing additional penalties and interest, or possible collection actions.[7]
Tax warrants
A tax warrant is equivalent to a civil judgment against you, and protects New York State’s interests and priority in the collection of outstanding tax debt. We file a tax warrant with the appropriate New York State county clerk’s office and the New York State Department of State, and it becomes a public record. A filed tax warrant creates a lien against your real and personal property, and may:
- allow us to seize and sell your real and personal property,
- allow us to garnish your wages or other income,
- affect your ability to buy or sell property, or
- affect your ability to obtain credit.
You can search for a tax warrant using the New York State Tax Warrants search tool.[8]
If you think these departments are only auditing individuals who make between $100,000 and $300,000 per year, think again. The individual discussed in this article makes less than $38,000 per year.
[1] https://taxcure.com/state-taxes/new-york/state-tax-audit
[2] https://riponsociety.org/article/fearing-the-irs-history-need-not-keep-repeating-itself/
[3] https://www.taxnotes.com/research/federal/court-documents/court-petitions-and-briefs/foundation-argues-for-reversal-of-third-party-summons-notice-decision/7g8h0
[4] Phone call between the taxpayer, this blogger, and The Department of Taxation and Finance in New York 2/12/2025
[5] Conversation with the taxpayer 2/12/2025
[6] https://www.tax.ny.gov/enforcement/
America Unspun 
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