Troubleshooter gets Cary man his long-awaited state tax refund
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- When you file your taxes on time, you expect to get your refund in a timely fashion.
For Bernard Scales, that did not happen. Bernard says he filed his taxes on time, and he waited for his state refund of $4,816. After a four to six weeks, and no refund he started checking with the state's Taxpayer Advocates office.
Bernard was told, "Your taxes have not been processed."
Three months after filing his taxes, Bernard still didn't have his state refund, so he was back to calling the state's Taxpayer Advocates Office again .
"The lady that I talked to said you need to send a duplicate return in and send it to this address, which I did," he said.
Despite filing his state taxes a second time, Bernard still received the same response.
"They said your taxes have not been processed," Bernard said. "This is getting to be ridiculous. So that is when I called you and said I need some help."
I immediately got involved, and shortly afterward Bernard got a call from the state.
"I had to send in a third copy to the Taxpayers Advocacy Office and that is when they found out they couldn't find neither the first one, nor the second one," Bernard said.
The third time was the charm. Within weeks, Bernard had his $4,816 refund.
"Thank God you got in behind them and you were able to rally the troops over there at the advocacy office," Bernard said. "If I had not gotten you involved, I would certainly still be waiting for it."
Due to the confusion and wait, the state added interest to his refund.
A representative with the state said due to privacy laws they can't comment on specific cases, but did say they highly recommend individuals file returns electronically when possible because you will receive confirmation of receipt of their state return.
