Garnishments and adsense

[snickles121]

Anyone ever had there adsense account garnished?

Apparantly I owed a state some money from about five years ago and didnt even know it (From previous marriage). Now I get a letter today saying they are garnishing my google account and the same garnishment letter is being sent to google. Now this is the first notice I ever received to make me aware of it.

My question is if anyone had this experience before with a garnishment letter being sent to Google and how they treated it. I wouldnt want to get my checks held up over this b/s. The amount is for about 1/5 of my earnings last month and I hope google doesnt put a hold on my entire account or worse. If its just for the amount owed then no big deal, but if I get my earnings held up for a month Ill be in trouble.

Im trying to call the state right now but there phone is busy and I doubt I can get this resolved by the time adsense sends out payments.

Thanks for any feedback.

[mhansen]

You need to call your accountant or an Atty for legal advice or representation... but I can share my own experience. Take it with a grain of salt.

You will not get a payment check from Google, or any other company that may have gotten the same letter. They are BOUND BY LAW to withhold your payments, until they get ANOTHER LETTER, clearing them of the responsibility. (Your debt is now their responsibility as well)

In my case, I called the IRS immediately and paid off the debt. It was the ONLY way to immediately get it cleared up and remove the garnish, even if they are wrong! After the debt is cleared up, THEN you can figure out why it got to that point.

If you don't clear it up immediately, they will just keep coming, The IRS does not go away. One day you will go to get gas in your vehicle and the card wont work... because your bank accounts were frozen. If you cannot afford to pay them right now... they will let you setup a pay plan, but ALL GARNISH ORDERS will remain in effect until your debt is paid in full, and the companies are released of their liability.

Curious... are you in NC?

[netmeg]

Also, if I were you, I'd run one of those free credit reports from annualcreditreport.com (that's the only one that's legitimately free) to make sure, once you are paid off, that it gets taken off your report.

[HuskyPup]

Blimey, I'm glad I don't live in the US. I'd never heard of this before and had to read up on what it is, my exes could have had a field day!

[mhansen]

my exes could have had a field day!

For me, it was the death of a parent where the Executor of the estate failed to properly file a final tax return. Since I was a beneficiary, they came calling... 3 years later!

The IRS is the strong arm here for sure! And, you simply cannot win against them. Pay the debt, then try to clear it up after the fact.

[snickles121]

How did you guess this was NC? The thing they dont understand is I dont have the cash to pay them until I get my earnings this month. I just got off the phone with them after two hours of being transferred and they hung up on me. They were not nice at all. I explained that this is the only notice I ever got, but they didnt care.

According to this letter, Google is supposed to take the full amount I owe them and send it to them. Hopefully this letter wont be processed in time this month so I can clear it up myself, but if not I hope they still send me the rest due to me this month so I can eat.

[mhansen]

How did you guess this was NC?

I'm in NC also (Charlotte area), I also had to handle my own issue this week, and my Accountant said its CRAZY right now, they are finding any loose ends and closing them.

Re: Unfriendly IRS - Sounds like the same people I dealt with! The way it was explained to me on two different ends... was that the Fed's actually passed the debt onto the State for collection. The state then processes it, without needing a reason, except that the Fed req'd it.

I feel your pain...

[Leosghost]

In the UK they call them garnishee orders ..in France liens..
mhansen's advice is correct ..and netmegs idea is a good one..

I have had to have one these issued by a court in the UK once ( they are not easy to get if you are not the IRS or its equivalent ) ..they are efficient though..one gets ones money :) or in this case the IRS get theirs.

Once had a bank account frozen here by the Tax people ("fisc")..here the Tax people and some other government departments can do it themselves with a letter without going via the courts ( exactly the same name as someone else..same bank ..some clerical worker didn't check addresses though ..first we knew was a letter from the bank saying the account was frozen )..took days and a lot of effort to get it lifted..

Meanwhile the bank's hands were tied..plus we were lucky ..only one bank account was affected ..we had time to clear it up ( prove it was an error ) before it went "cluster".

Got an apology from the fisc ..head guy of the region became a personal friend ;-)..

A highly placed friend in the tax office is a very good thing..I have since developed more ;-)

[HuskyPup]

In the UK they call them garnishee orders

So they did, since 2002 they've been called Third Party Debt Orders, interesting, never had the need for one.

[ganderla]

So your payments must be in your name right? I can't see this happening if payments go to a business.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Replace adsense with another ad network in the interim(assuming you still need the money to pay bills to, you know, survive) and block the ip's of the parties involved from your sites. A good way to get the ip of some legal authority who is harassing you (rightfully or not) is to make contact via email. It will be in their response headers but include a 1x1 pixel transparent image just for them and it will appear in your stats even if they don't respond but do open the email.

You'll also find out if your email "makes the rounds" to other departments, to their home addresses (to your ex?). You need to monitor those who monitor you as best you can, it's not personal.


Take a tip from Google here since your livelihood is involved, gather all the data you can 'in case' you need it later.

If you really want to get sneaky you can display adsense to the parties involved and other ads to the rest of the world. While you do run the risk of getting caught... so what?

I'm not suggesting all of this to avoid or get out of your obligations but I am saying it's always best to protect your interests, they sure won't.

[snickles121]

I got pip today so I guess google is holding off for now. However I would like to send North Carolina a truck full of pennies tommorrow for embarrassing me, but im sure they will throw me in jail over it. In any case Ill pay them tomorrow and be done with it.

I would just like to say they were shady about it and didnt even give me a chance to clear it up. At least google held off on the garnishment to give me that chance.

[Leosghost]

I don't want to rain on your parade but if the PIP you see doesn't specify who the payment is going to ..PIP in your case might mean that they are going to send it to NC direct...

wait and see ..