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Some Hoosiers get tax notices, even though they don't owe anything

The exterior of a state government office building in downtown Indianapolis. The words "Indiana" and "A State That Works" are on the side of the building, as well as a logo for the state that shows the outline of Indiana in front of a gear wheel. In the foreground is a statue of young Abraham Lincoln.
FILE PHOTO: Justin Hicks
/
IPB News
Overdue tax notices from the Indiana Department of Revenue are automatically generated. And the agency said sometimes, people’s payments are processed after the automatic notice goes out.

Some Hoosiers have gotten notices from the state that they have unpaid taxes that were due earlier this year, only to find out days later, they owe nothing.

The letters threaten that the state will issue a tax warrant if people don’t respond within a few weeks. But some Hoosiers who received them said, when they checked the state’s online tax portal just a few days later, they didn’t owe anything.

The Indiana Department of Revenue said those notices are automatically generated. And it said sometimes, people’s payments are processed after the automatic notice goes out.

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For instance, DOR said if you filed your taxes online but sent in a paper check, that might account for the delay. Or, if the payment you sent in didn’t have a voucher with it to indicate your account or didn’t have proper notation, it would take the agency longer to enter that payment into its system, thus accounting for the unpaid notice.

Hoosiers can check their tax balance online via the state’s tax portal, INTIME.

Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.

Brandon Smith has covered the Statehouse for Indiana Public Broadcasting for more than a decade, spanning three governors and a dozen legislative sessions. He's also the host of Indiana Week in Review, a weekly political and policy discussion program seen and heard across the state. He previously worked at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri and WSPY in Plano, Illinois. His first job in radio was in another state capitol - Jefferson City, Missouri - as a reporter for three stations around the Show-Me State.