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Jessica Iverson said the first problem occurred when the state's computer system was unable to read the electronic form filed by some taxpayers seeking credits for paying out-of-state taxes — the Schedule OS.
``There was a software vendor with whom we were having troubling reading that schedule,'' Iverson said. ``This is the first time this schedule was offered electronically. What happened is we were not able to accept this information from that schedule.''
The problem was compounded when this same group was erroneously sent notices without any explanation that they owed additional state taxes that were due by the end of the month, she said.
Iverson said those taxpayers should have first received a notice explaining why the agency believed they owed more taxes and given instructions on how to contest the amount and a 60-day period in which to do it.
Those letters will be arriving to that group of taxpayers within the next week, she said.
Iverson said taxpayers will get instructions on how to correct the problem in the letters they will receive next week. She said the filers who are affected will need to follow the appeals process because the department still needs the information to ensure they qualify for the tax credit.
Jeff Fray of Reedsburg said the electronic form on which he declared that he had paid $86 in California taxes on the income from a California oil well was not accepted by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue's computer system.
The agency has thus billed the retired air-traffic controller and his wife for the same amount.
Fray said he should not have to appeal to get the state to fix a problem for which it has already acknowledged responsibility.
``Instead of just doing an easy correction on this, I have to go through the whole appeals process to get this off my taxes,'' he said. ``Not only are they wasting my time, they're wasting their time.''
