Paying Amounts in Dispute

There are very few areas where you will find common sense, logic and justice as subverted as you will when you deal with the tax system in our country.

Today I had to explain to a client that although he had valid grounds to dispute his re-assessment, there was no law that prevented collection of the taxes arising from the re-assessment before his appeal and/or objection were complete.

“But I don’t owe the money, they made a mistake, why should I have to pay?”

I have no other answer than – that is what the law says. Of course I explain that if he is successful in his appeal then any excess amounts paid will be refunded but that is little comfort to someone facing an $80,000 bill. It is incredibly hard to watch people time and time again look confused and crushed that the law allows these injustices to happen. People have no respect for laws that are unfair and the more you learn about the tax system, the less you respect it.

Paying taxes while an objection is being processed only applies in certain situations but for those where it does, they face the prospect of potentially being bankrupted before their appeal is even heard. All I can do is warn the taxpayer and hope we get a nice collection agent who agrees not to exercise their power to collect…