State tax lien that is not mine

[shelly40]

My husband worked for his dad for years. They have the same first name, different middle names. My father in law has unpaid state employee witholding tax. The state put 3 liens on my husband for these unpaid taxes. During the last year, we have sent the attny gen's office and the collection agency they are using certified letters requesting validation of the debt and proof positive that it is not my husband's debt, along with filling out a form through the CA for wrong identity. We've had no further communication with either offices in months and these liens have not been removed. I haven't contacted the credit bureaus yet because I didn't know I should do that before any of this was resolved. I have all the copies of the letters we sent them. I just don't know what else I should be doing and cannot afford a lawyer.

The proof we sent them are my husband's W2's for the years in question, showing he was an employee, not an employer, and didn't owe taxes for employees as he did not own or operate a business. My husband's taxes, state and federal, were taken out of each pay. My husband, to his knowledge, has not been named a responsible party in any capacity in his father's business and has never signed anything stating otherwise.

[chane]

The best way to get them removed from his credit report is by disputing them with the CRAs. If that doesn't work, things will be a little more complicated but, there are other ways to get them off.

[J.A.]

Were these liens shown as judgments on your husband's report & when you contacted the CA did they say what these liens were for?

Just asking because some people have investigated state tax liens and found out that they were for unemployment that was owed from the past.

[shelly40]

We contacted the state attorney's office and then there is also another agency that says they are a collection agency for the state, who we also contacted by phone and certified mail. The tax leans are for my father in law's business and the taxes owed are listed under that business name. My husband's social security number is also listed. The woman I spoke with didn't know if it started with a clerical error, as my father in law's name and my husband's name are the same, except for their middle names. However, I could never understand how someone would have pulled my husband's name out of the blue, along with his social. She couldn't tell me if my husband was somehow named as an officer or responsible party of the company. If that is the case, though, it was w/o his knowledge, consent or signature. As I said before, I sent copies of my husband's W2's in for 2000, 2001, 2002 showing he worked FOR the company, as an employee. All taxes, state and federal, were taken out of his weekly check, along w/unemployment. The taxes owed are for employee witholding taxes for that company and total over 50,000. My husband didn't make that a year, let alone owe taxes in that amount! There is also another thing on his credit from 1972 for another business of my father in law's that failed. This is also for some kind of tax, over 50,000. I don't know if it's federal or state, paid or not. It shows somehow on my husband's credit report, but my husband was only 2 at the time and creditors haven't really paid much attention to that one.

Since I requested validation in writing and sent in irrefutable proof that he does not owe this tax, are they not in violation of the law? They never responded to the request of validation, and I thought they only had 30 days. I am going to write all three CRA's, as you suggested.

One more question, if someone already has a judgment against you, can they get another one for the same debt? If I want to "challenge" an already filed judgment by sending letters of validation to the CA and requesting it through the CRA's, can they get another judgment against me? And can I even go this route since this judgment has already been put on. This is for another debt issue from 4 years ago, a credit card. We didnt know the process then and only verbally disputed this debt with the CA and ended up getting a judgment against us. We had a verbal agreement with a lawyer ,who was acting as their CA, who set up payment plans with us for a debt of 900.00. (My father in law's company went under due to losing all housing contracts.) The debt turned into 1900.00 after fees, etc! Anyway, after our verbal payment plan we received ,shortly thereafter, a summons to appear. As we had no evidence of any communication, we lost the judgment. We had asked that the first CA (Portfolio) provide us with statements, etc, and they refused to do so stating they didn't have to. The debt was then taken over by a lawyer.
Sorry so long! I SO appreciate the time taken to answer my questions. These issues have been ongoing and frustruating. We cannot afford a lawyer and so we are trying to figure out how to fix all of this on our own. So, again, thanks so much! Michelle