Request for Emergency Help

STOP! READ THIS UPDATE.

NOW READ THIS SECOND UPDATE.

I’ve never asked for money on my blog before, but I’ve just been hit with a major financial emergency.

Several months ago, the Alabama Department of Revenue decided I’d underpaid on state taxes from ten years earlier. (I wasn’t aware of having done so, but I don’t have those records any more and so can’t prove otherwise.) After they’d added on interest and late fees, the total due was about $12,000. I submitted a request form to pay it off in installments; they never said yes or no to the request form, but I kept sending in payments and they kept cashing them, which led me to be more sanguine than in retrospect I should have been.

Then suddenly today, without warning or announcement (either from the tax department or from my bank), the tax department completely cleared out my checking account, and my savings account, and my mother’s checking account (I guess because we’re joint on it), leaving me $8000 overdrawn to boot.

I found out the money’d been taken only by checking my balance online today – and I had to go to the bank in person to find out it was a tax levy (the online balance had no information about who’d withdrawn the money).

My college salary doesn’t start up again until September, and I have no relatives from whom to borrow, so here I am with no money (or actually, negative $8000) for food, rent, or bills for the rest of the summer.

I haven’t had a chance to contact either the tax department or a lawyer yet (having spent the afternoon waiting and waiting at my bank), but I’m not exactly optimistic about getting a swift and favourable resolution.

Which is why I am desperately requesting help. If you can help, please let me know whether it’s a gift or a loan, and send either via PayPal:

or to my snailmail address:

Roderick T. Long
402 Martin Ave.
Auburn AL 36849

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67 Responses to Request for Emergency Help

  1. Josiah Warren July 22, 2009 at 7:38 am #

    sent $50 your way Roderick!

    Good luck…

    bg

  2. Charles Hueter July 22, 2009 at 9:05 am #

    Rotten, thieving, deceitful bastards.

    Payday arrives next week and I’ll send you something then.

  3. Glen L July 22, 2009 at 9:26 am #

    Good luck Rod, hopefully all of us who derive such pleasure from your work will be good enough to return the favor monetarily

    Smash the State

  4. Bob Kaercher July 22, 2009 at 9:35 am #

    OMG, that is outrageous. I’ll send you what I can when I get home from work tonight. And consider it a gift…or rather, as payment for all the wonderful stuff I’ve gleaned from your blog over the years.

  5. Richard Garner July 22, 2009 at 9:50 am #

    I am unemployed at the moment, thanks to the credit crunch, but I have forwarded you request to both Libertarian Alliances here in the UK, so hopefully people there can help.

  6. Jeremy July 22, 2009 at 10:07 am #

    I am deeply saddened to hear about this; there but for the grace of God go any of us. I’m very happy to send a gift, and I hope you will continue to reach out to us for ongoing needs as you work through this dreadful situation. The RLLA will look into what additional support we can offer going forward.

    You know, I’ve recently been questioning the value of the Alliance, but if it can serve as a mutual aid network in just this manner, it’s worth it for that alone. We will all be there for you, Roderick.

  7. Mike Gogulski July 22, 2009 at 10:09 am #

    Meh, I sent you $20 anyway, especially since my PayPal account is presently divorced from any bank account and I can’t get the money in it anyway 😛

    Good luck.

  8. Gene July 22, 2009 at 10:32 am #

    I literally have no money right now (unemployed), so I’m gonna see what I can sell to send you some dough. Might take a while.

  9. Solveig Singleton July 22, 2009 at 10:35 am #

    A small donation is headed your way via paypal. Good luck.

  10. Mike Renzulli July 22, 2009 at 10:53 am #

    I have just sent you something. I hope you can get this mess cleaned up quickly.

  11. Vexatious Litigant July 22, 2009 at 11:19 am #

    Have you tried http://www.jurisinformatics.com?

  12. James Tuttle July 22, 2009 at 12:31 pm #

    I sent what I could. I’ll have more on the 1st. Wish you all the best and, please, keep us posted.

  13. Cathleen Wedlake July 22, 2009 at 1:11 pm #

    That big brother crap ticks me off! They don’t need to get ugly especially since you are willing to work with them.

    I’m sending you $$ via mail, please watch for it. Meanwhile,
    look into this program.
    http://www.StreamlineFunnelSystem.com/?ID=2574

    It’s only $9.95 to get started and there’s a double money-back guarantee on the $9.95. The video will explain how the program works and it may help you get back onto your feet. I know for certain it is helping alot of other people to . . . including me as I’m unemployed.

  14. M Carling July 22, 2009 at 1:17 pm #

    That’s happened to me — twice — about twelve years apart. In both cases, the gummint eventually (after I hired tax lawyers) admitted that I hadn’t actually owed anything (in one case they admitted that I had originally overpaid), but they never gave back a dime of the money they had taken. The tax lawyers told me I had no chance of winning in tax court because the gummint dragged it out past the statute of limitations before admitting they were wrong. My guess is that you probably didn’t underpay and this is just a shakedown. That’s how the system works in the US because the tax collectors get to personally keep a percentage of the money they take.

    Why don’t you get a summer job? Maybe your neighbors have lawns that need mowing.

  15. Pete Eyre July 22, 2009 at 2:14 pm #

    Jason (my colleague on MHD) and I will give you $100 for some of your time to put your mind to work for us.

  16. Mike July 22, 2009 at 2:18 pm #

    $25 USD ($28ish CAD) on the way Roderick. Keep fighting man, we are behind you.

  17. Anonymous July 22, 2009 at 2:43 pm #

    The most of important duty of every anarchist is to keep money out of the hands of the state. You totally failed in your duty. You might be the most incompetent anarchist on the planet.

  18. Roderick July 22, 2009 at 2:50 pm #

    STOP! READ THIS UPDATE.

  19. Van July 22, 2009 at 3:54 pm #

    Sending something Friday.

  20. Brett July 22, 2009 at 5:32 pm #

    I think there’s something you’re not tell us here, I’m not sending you squat until you explain further.

    • Roderick July 22, 2009 at 6:24 pm #

      What would you like to know?

  21. Dom July 23, 2009 at 10:10 pm #

    Sent $100 (a gift). Best of luck sorting everything out!

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