We own a boat - a nice 18 foot boat. At least that is what our city-county tax office is telling us.
Last week we received an official letter from the tax office that we needed to pay the taxes on the boat that we purchases this year. Now, we don't like taxes anymore than anyone else, but we do pay what we owe. However, it's a little more difficult to get excited about paying the taxes on a boat that we DO NOT own; a boat that we will never ride in.
The letter came to our correct home address with Jeff's name on the envelope. When Jeff called the tax office yesterday, they simply told us that the NC Wildlife department had informed them that we had registered a boat. Hm.....So, we called the Wildlife department and talked with Lisa. She pulled up all the boat owners with my husband's name in NC. There were three in the entire state, but only one other (besides my Jeff) in the city where we make our home. As we already knew, it was NOT our address.
We called the tax department back and since then have gotten the familiar bureaucratic run around about this matter. It's a good thing that the employees in this tax office do not actually run for their offices. The one we were dealing with would be out on her head!
As condescendingly simple as she could be, she told Jeff that she realized no one likes to pay taxes, but if you buy a boat you have to be willing to pay the taxes on it. There was no need for him to make an issue about this, she crooned. When Jeff pressed the issue about NOT owning the boat, she put her hard, professional voice back on and referred him to her supervisor, which has alluded our calls so far.
I'm thinking that someone made a mistake and is not willing to own up to it for one reason or another. It's simply ridiculous. There are no documents in existence anywhere that will connect us with the ownership of a boat. But it looks like there will be much energy expended on proving this to an office that already has all the records to prove this. They have the other man's name, address, see the differences in my husband's driver's license number and the real boat owner's, but it's still not clicking with them.
Is this the kind of frustration that started the Boston Tea Party?
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