Travis County Commissioners Court
March 17, 2009,
Item 23
>> number 23 is to consider and take appropriate action on request from daniel kallick to waive penalty and interest on taxes due.
mr.
kallick sheer today.
what I told him is that we would give him an opportunity to lay out his case and we would need legal advice on this and would take this item into executive session when we discussed the other executive session items.
if you would have a seat there and get comfortable, you may want to state your full name for the record for us and we would be happy to get your comments.
>> I'm daniel kallick.
i paid my tax bill a couple of weeks ago and when I got my receipt back, there was a little note that I owed a couple of thousand bucks.
i thought it was a mistake.
i always pay my tax bill.
so I called up to see what the issue was, and before -- I checked all my records and I couldn't find a bill and I couldn't find that I had paid it, so I assumed it was -- somehow I had made a mistake.
but I called just to touch base and see if I could get the penalties waived because I had had a major illness.
so I talked to somebody and he thought that that was a possibility.
he patched me through to somebody in the tax office.
and there was no program, compassionate program for removing the penalties, but there was -- if they made a mistake, they could waive the penalties.
so I asked if they could check to see if perhaps they had applied the payment to a wrong property.
so she puts me on hold for 10 minutes and gets back and says no, that couldn't have happened because you didn't know that the taxes were due.
all of the letters we sent you, all of the bills that we sent had come back to us.
apparently they were sending it to the wrong address.
i said well, that seems like a mistake.
maybe you could waive all the penalties because you were sending it to the wrong address.
and they said no, that wasn't possible because somebody had given them the wrong address and whoever gave them the wrong address was at fault and they should pay the penalties.
so I'm hoping that I can get the penalties waived.
since I wasn't informed that I owed the taxes, I know I owe them and I know I've got to pay the taxes, but I don't think it's fair to ask me to -- penalize me when I wasn't -- didn't know that they were due.
>> let me ask a few questions just to try to understand the situation.
so we're talking about what tax period?
>> honestly I don't know.
>> okay.
when did you first contact the tax office?
>> about four weeks ago.
four or five weeks ago.
>> okay.
so --
>> this is the first time I found out that I owed taxes.
>> February of '09?
>> yeah.
>> so you owe taxes for what year, though, '08 or '07?
>> I have no idea.
>> to what address were the letters sent?
>> they said they were sent to someplace in Lakeway.
>> and they should have been sent to what address?
>> running deer, and they had that address.
that's the thing because they were sending me tax bills on my house.
and then this one lot they weren't sending it to me, they sent it to someplace in Lakeway and they were coming back.
so they had the information in their office.
they could have easily done it.
and when I asked her about that, she said we don't have the staff to check addresses.
but you were able to find me this time.
>> well, we've had an increase in staff and we're able to.
>> all right.
i didn't quite understand the address to which the bill should have been sent.
>> 14507 running deer trail.
78734.
>> so the address to which the bills were sent has never been an address of yours?
>> no.
they were sending it to someplace in Lakeway.
>> so your position today is that the mistake was made in that the bills were sent to the wrong address and no mistake on your part caused the county to send the bill to that address.
>> that's correct.
>> okay.
Commissioner Davis?
>> your question caught my question, got the answer to it.
when you asked that other one, I was going to ask the same one you asked.
>> normally I would catch that, but I was so sick last year that I didn't have to itemize my taxes.
normally I would itemize my taxes and that would be the first thing I looked for.
but I didn't pay taxes.
>> what's the total amount owed at this time?
first.
>> $1,500, I think.
15 something?
>> that's the amount in dispute?
>> yes.
i think the penalties are three or four hundred dollars.
>> judge, let me ask this additional question that -- from what time did you realize that you owed the taxes?
in other words, from what beginning point?
in other words, --
>> from about six weeks ago, seven weeks ago.
>> seven weeks?
and intrt had accrued for -- the interest had accrued for how long?
>> I don't know.
my short-term memory is shot.
if I start answering questions, I'll be wrong.
i know I got a receipt that showed I owed 1500 bucks, and I pay my bills religiously.
i get them, I pay them.
so I thought it was a mistake.
and there was a mistake, but -- and it was both of ours.
they didn't send me a bill and I didn't pay it.
so there were two mistakes there.
>> okay.
>> any else you would like for us to know today, mr.
kallick?
>> that's it.
>> the short-term memory issue that you mentioned, is that related to the illness that you had last year?
>> oh, yeah.
i had thyroid cancer.
they removed my thyroid and it affect mid short-term memory.
>> okay.
>> okay.
well, thank you very much.
we will chat with legal in executive session when we go into executive session today.
and we normally go in there last.
it could be late this morning or early afternoon.
but we have your phone member, so I or somebody on my staff will call you later today and let you know the court's position on it.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> what item are you here on?
>> 10 and 12.
>> we got our answer to 12, right?
>> yes.
i move approval of t.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 1:35 PM