Federal Retirees

FYI... On the post above:
The State is expected to reply within 4 to 6 weeks.
That would be Aug 30 -- Sept 15.

Taxes-101

FYI...
The Administrative "Request for Refund and Protective Claim" submitted
to the State of Virginia on July 30, 2019, is 21 pages of reasoning and
rationale. Based predominately on the "Dawson v Steager" U.S. Supreme Court
decision in Feb 2019.

Taxes-101

I'd be curious to know how Dawson v. Steager helps in this situation. The holding in that case simply reaffirmed past decisions and existing Federal law (4 U.S. Code §111):


The holding in Dawson is that a State violates §111 when it treats retired state employees more favorably than retired federal employees and no “significant differences between the two classes” justify the differential treatment. In the CSRS situation, the Virginia court already applied §111 to the facts and held that there is no discrimination against Federal CSRS employees based on the source of their pay or compensation, as prohibited by §111 (and that decision was upheld by the Supreme Court of Virginia). Nothing in Dawson would seem to change the previous Virginia court rulings, as it simply applied §111 in the normal course, where West Virginia "expressly affords state law enforcement retirees a tax benefit that federal retirees cannot receive." Is there a way for you to share the "Request for Refund and Protective Claim" that was submitted? I would love to see the reasoning and rationale, as I just don't see how the decision in Dawson would result in a change in the previous Virginia court rulings.

I am also curious why there was no attempt to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court when the Supreme Court of Virginia previously refused the petition for appeal and ruled that there was no reversible error in the circuit court's judgment. It seems like starting the process over again in an attempt to likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, as indicated in your post two days ago, just used a lot more time. I think your "unlikely to work" predictions are probably correct:


My guesses based on Dawson and the prior Virginia proceedings: 1. Admin, dismissal based on earlier court rulings; 2. Virginia Circuit Court, dismissal based on earlier court rulings; 3. Supreme Court of Virginia, refuse the petition for appeal based on earlier court rulings; and 4. U.S. Supreme Court, refuse to grant petition for a writ of certiorari. But, perhaps the "Request for Refund and Protective Claim" contains an argument based on Dawson that is not readily apparent from the language in the decision itself.

Thanks. A big distinguishing factor is that the West Virginia statute expressly afforded state law enforcement retirees a tax benefit that federal retirees could never receive. The Virginia statute is not similar in that regard. The Virginia Circuit Court found that the Virginia tax process and treatment of Social Security benefits did not discriminate against federal CSRS employees based on the source of their pay or compensation, as prohibited by Title 4 U.S.C. § 111. You likely have access to more information than can be found publicly, so I cannot address the issue of whether the Virginia Circuit Court relied on the fact that there was no "no wholesale discrimination." While that issue was not the primary one in Dawson, the Court addressed it because West Virginia asserted that its preference for State retirees couldn’t meaningfully interfere with the operations of the Federal government because so few people were involved. If Virginia is making that same argument, then I could see where Dawson might be helpful. However, where the West Virginia law clearly treated State and Federal retirees differently based on "the source of the pay or compensation," the Virginia courts have already ruled on that issue, and it seems that the Virginia law expressly treats State and Federal annuity recipients in the same manner. It is a bit of a circular argument to assert that being able to exempt Social Security benefits from taxable income in Virginia is discriminatory because CSRS annuitants generally do not receive Social Security benefits. I understand the argument; I'm just not sure the tax process in Virginia truly fits within the parameters of §111 (and I agree with your prediction that the Virginia courts will not rule that it does). It certainly will be interesting to see how all of this transpires.

A second request for refund and protective order was mailed to the
Virginia Dept. of Taxation on Aug. 12, 2019.
This requested refund value will be included in the Complaint to
be later filed in the Virginia Civil Court!!!

As of today (Sept 26, 2019) it has been 7 weeks since the first
admin tax refund resolution request was mailed to the State of Virginia.
It has been 5 weeks since the second additional request was mailed.

Response from the state to an Admin Filing is typically 4 to 6 weeks.
But the submissions are both lengthy at 21 pages, so a longer than
average response time was anticipated.

Virginia will never administratively agree. But the admin route
is required before the case can be filed with the court.
So... still waiting.
Taxes-101

As of Nov 6, 2019; I am still waiting for the State of Virginia to respond to my claims.
It's now been 13 weeks. Typically, a response is within 4 to 6 weeks. So We're at 13 weeks,
double the typical maximum response time average.

On January 29th, I received a response from the Virginia Dept of taxation.
They denied my request for refund of taxes paid on a portion of my CSRS retirement that
is comparable to Social Security.

The work is shifted now to having the info reformatted into a court "Complaint" form.
I'm allowing 4 to 6 weeks for the effort.
THUS... I anticipate the court filing will be about March 17th. Then it's off to the races!

I'll keep you posted!!!
PS... there are currently about 75,000 CSRS retirees residing in Virginia. : )

You really have nothing better to do with your time?

Yep, you really have nothing better to do with your time. Sad.