OKLAHOMA CITY– This week thousands of Oklahomans got a letter in the mail saying they are facing tax trouble with the state of Oklahoma. Several people, who hold some sort of a license with the state, say they got a letter telling them there was a problem with their taxes.
The problem is many of the people who got the letter say they did nothing wrong but could face getting their licenses revoked.
“It’s kind of nerve-racking to think that your license can get suspended in the first place for something that you don’t have control over,” Kory Spargur said.
Spargur isn’t the only one with these concerns.
In fact he’s one of 11,000 people in the state who got a letter like this from the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
The letter says “…your license will not be renewed unless you are in compliance with the income tax laws of Oklahoma…the tax commission is unable to verify that you are in compliance. Our records show the following income tax balances remain unpaid and/or the income tax years have not been filed…”
It then lists the years 2000-2006. However, in 2000 Spargur was only 12 years old.
“If I’m 12, I can’t pay taxes on money I didn’t earn,” he said.
Not only was he too young to work, during some of those years he didn’t even live in Oklahoma.
“We lived in Florida and Virginia from 2003 to 2006,” Spargur said.
Spargur is a licensed electrical apprentice and is scheduled to take a test in two weeks to get an electrician’s license, but according to the letter he may not be able to use it.
“If it’s not figured out in two weeks when I do take my test and provided I pass it they won’t let me have that license, plus they would stop this license,” he said. “So I can’t work now, and I can’t work when I have my license.”
Of course of the 11,000 letters sent out there are people who really do owe the tax commission.
At 45 cents a stamp, sending out those letters cost the state nearly 5,000 dollars.
The question is how many of those letters were actually legit, and how much did the state pay for unnecessary postage like Spargur’s letter?
“Hopefully it’ll get resolved on their end and don’t send me anymore of those saying that they can or will take that away,” he said.
We talked with the tax commission, and they sent us a statement that explains their efforts to make sure Oklahomans are in compliance with the law, but they didn’t address the mistaken letters they may have sent out.
