Illinois tax due, non resident.

[Knull1320]

I have been a Florida resident for 25 years, and a couple of years ago I went to Illinois with the intention of bringing my girlfriend down to Florida to live with me. When I got to Illinois we found out her dad had a couple weeks left to live of cancer. So I decided to stay there for a couple of weeks. In the meantime I did a couple of small jobs for her brother up there. So when it came time to do taxes obviously I had to enter that in. But I came back to Florida shortly after and have been here ever since. They are saying I owe them $1,500...... Do I have to pay it? I never intend on going back there. Never had a Illinois residence, never had a Illinois driver's license or anything. It's 2024 and this happened in 2018.

[rjs]

Any money that you earn for working in a different state is taxed by the state that you worked in, even though you are not a resident of that state. It doesn't matter if you live in a state that does not have state income tax. You were supposed to file an Illinois nonresident tax return to report the income that you earned for working in Illinois.

The $1,500 that you now owe probably includes penalties for not filing the Illinois nonresident tax return, and interest from when you should have paid the tax until now.

[tagteam]

You cannot ignore this because they could reduce the levy to a judgment and then register the judgment in Florida.

[Knull1320]

That's the thing, I checked my TurboTax and I did file the non resident Illinois return. I only got $250 as a return that year because of the Illinois state tax.

[tagteam]

Then you need to contest their assessment if you believe it is incorrect. 

You should have been provided with instructions as to how to do so in the letter (or statement).

[rjs]

It appears that there are some details that you omitted in your original question.

Does the 2018 Form IL-1040 that you filed show a refund on line 36 or does it show an amount you owe on line 39? If it shows an amount you owe, did you pay it? When did you pay it?

On your 2018 Form IL-1040 is the Nonresident box checked on line D?

When did you file your 2018 nonresident Illinois tax return?

What was the $250 refund that you say you received? Was it a federal refund (from the IRS) or was it a state refund from Illinois? The Illinois state tax would not reduce your federal refund.

What is the number of the notice or letter that says you owe $1,500? It starts with IDOR or LTR.

Did you receive any other notices or letters from the Illinois Department of Revenue prior to the one that now says you owe $1,500?

Again note that you do have to pay Illinois tax on income that you earned for working in Illinois, even though you were never an Illinois resident, and you lived in a state that does not have state income tax.

Don't mix up a return and a refund. Your tax return is the form you send to the government that shows your income and calculates your tax. The money the government sends back to you is your refund. You don't get a return, you get a refund.