Georgia sends incorrect tax notices to 6,400 filers

Georgia officials sent incorrect notices to 6,401 tax filers telling them they owned money when they did not, and state officials said they have fixed the problem moving forward.

State revenue department officials confirmed to this reporter that the error "occurred solely with paper returns."

"Taxpayer data fields from paper returns are converted to electronic information and then our system maps the data fields and automatically processes the return," Austin Gibbons, director of external affairs and communications for the Georgia Department of Revenue, said in an email. When department officials "discovered that the retirement income exclusion field was not properly mapped," its Taxpayer Services Division began "identifying and manually correcting the 6,401 returns that were affected."

"Those taxpayers then received a letter notifying them of why a correction was made," Gibbons added. "Moving forward, we have done an extensive review of our return mapping and strengthened our testing protocols so it is extremely unlikely for this type of error to happen again moving forward."

Gibbons said the revenue department’s Taxpayer Services Division is ready to answer any questions impacted taxpayers might have.

The department could not immediately confirm how many people who received notices paid additional taxes. However, Gibbons said anyone who paid would have received a refund.