Call Kurtis: I got a 1099 for a tax refund I never received!
SACRAMENTO — When another Sacramento viewer got a tax form for a Middle Class Tax Refund she never received, it was time to call Kurtis.
CBS13 has been reporting on this issue for a while, and now the entire refund rollout is under audit.
Pat Dyer got a 1099 for her gas tax rebate of $700, but there was one big problem, she never got the money.
"Which made me think 'Well, I kind of want my money. That would be great,' " Pat said.
She says she and her husband took turns waiting on hold to contact the Franchise Tax Board and the Money Network - the company responsible for the program's debit cards.
"I was so upset that I actually yelled at the phone," she said. "At the end of my husband's half hour, he said 'We need to call Kurtis.'"
The Franchise Tax Board issued $9.2 billion in payments benefiting 32 million taxpayers.
But some people say they never got the money. Other reports say debit cards were drained before they got a chance to use them.
We thought it was interesting that the initial graphic the state used when talking about these rebates prominently shows a chip on the front of the debit cards. But this year that changed, as the card on the graphic no longer has a chip.
The Franchise Tax Board said that "the supply of chips was limited, due to a nationwide shortage," but won't tell us how many cards went out like that. The agency also admitted it flipped the card in its graphic to make it more obvious that there were two types of cards going out. This change was made months ago.
And even though the agency reports a low fraud rate, San Diego Assemblymember David Alvarez called for an audit.
In late March, lawmakers approved it. But that won't immediately help Pat, so we put volunteer Joni on the case.
"I was able to contact one of our representatives at the Franchise Tax Board who looked into this for her," Joni said.
Pat then got her money.
The FTB says it has fielded close to 2 million calls about these payments and Assemblymember Alvarez thinks preliminary audit findings might be out within a few months.
