This is another thing that just makes me shake my head. So my wife’s parents both died about 2 years ago. A couple of months ago, we got a letter from California’s Franchise Tax Board asking for copies of their taxes from, I think, 2021.
This is where things get really, really dumb. I hate this fucking state.
We don’t have that paperwork. We looked. We went through my father-in-law’s office. We have no clue where he would have put his copies and we checked on his computer and there’s nothing there. We don’t have it. He’s dead. What do you want us to do?
So my wife got on the phone and called the tax board. It was a 4+ hour wait. Of course it is. At least they’ll call you back when you reach your place in line. She got the call, eventually, and she told them that he’s dead. We don’t have any of the data that they want. We tried.
What they want is for us to take the information, plug it into the tax software and send them the reports. Luckily, we have the 2021 tax software so we can reinstall it and do the mindless busy work, but seriously, can’t they do that themselves? They are wasting more time on the phone with my wife than it would take to just type the shit in!
These people are idiots.
UPDATE: She took the information that she was sent and couldn’t run it through the tax software because the information was incomplete. You can’t do state without also doing federal and she doesn’t have the federal information and there is no way in hell we’re going to sit on the phone with the IRS. From what she could run, California owes us $81,000. If they want to go with it, fine by me. Otherwise, they can take a flying leap.
UPDATE UPDATE: She called and they wanted to pursue it so we got ahold of my in-laws’ financial adviser who sent all the information we needed. It took a couple of hours and we finished the taxes. Apparently, they never got filed at all. It was the last year they were alive, after all. California doesn’t owe us anything and we don’t owe them anything, which is all they’re after, California is out of money and desperately looking for anything they can get, but the federal government apparently owes us about $10k. It’s not $81k. but we’ll take it!
It doesn’t end there though. I wound up with my father-in-law’s truck after he died. They had 4 cars and we had to do something with them, plus, my brother-in-law and I had talked about buying a cheap truck and just having it sit around for when we needed to move big stuff, so I figured why not? It hardly moves. It just sits in the driveway. Whatever.
So this year, I had to take it down and get it smogged. It passed. I knew it would. However, I couldn’t get the certificate because it had the wrong catalytic converter on it. California only allows specific converters for specific cars. It doesn’t matter that it passes the actual smog test. It doesn’t matter what the emissions actually are, they only care if the converter has the right number stamped on the side of it.
That’s stupid. So I made an appointment with the smog check referees. It’s a service that California offers to judge these problems. Even the referee himself said this was just stupid, but this is California we’re talking about, right? His line, not mine. So I sent them all of the documentation and all of the pictures they wanted and they said they’d just approve it, I’ll just have to wait for an appointment at one of their centers, which luckily is free since I already paid for the stupid test once and it passed, and then they’ll put a sticker on the catalytic converter or something that tells shops that it’s okay to approve it in the future.
It’s a new converter. Someone stole it off my father-in-law’s truck in 2019. Whoever put this new one on put the wrong one on by mistake. Not anyone’s fault but the shop, but I have no way of knowing who did it and certainly no way of proving it. The stupid thing is, this truck has passed smog TWICE since then with no problems, once in 2020 and once in 2022. It’s only “failing” now because my shop looked like they’re supposed to. Most, apparently, don’t bother.
Now I’m just waiting for them to make an appointment so I can drive my truck down there, they can test it, it can pass like it already did, I can pay the $8 for a stupid certificate, get my actual tags and go home. What a complete waste of my time because IT ALREADY PASSED!
So I hate this state, but I don’t think any of the others are any better. Both my kids complain about the stupid crap they have to deal with in the states they live in. This is what happens when we elect and hire people who lack the capacity to think for themselves. These people are dumb and I am ever so sick of dumb people, aren’t you?
UPDATE! I took the truck to the Smog Referee and it passed everything with flying colors and I got the certificate. I actually found out that it isn’t the catalytic converter that is the problem, California hasn’t put out an updated official list of acceptable converters in YEARS! It was acceptable, back in 2019 or 2020 when it was installed! California just hasn’t officially told anyone about it. Now I have wasted hours of my life getting this thing fixed when there was nothing wrong with it in the first place.
I hate this piece of shit state.