the tragic whale

In my job, I have to work with the Department of Revenue fairly often. Mostly we collect sales tax for them, but sometimes we have to call to get information on car dealerships. Usually it’s simple. “Hi DOR, is this California dealership registered with you? No? Great, thanks.” or “Hi, DOR? Is this New Hampshire dealership registered with you? Yes? Awesome, thanks.”

Well today the Department of Revenue was closed because they are based out of Boston, and Boston was pretty publicly on lock down. And this dude bought a car from a dealer in Ohio for about half it’s value and didn’t want to pay tax on the full value. (Understandable. I wouldn’t either.) And he convinced the dealership yesterday to register with the Mass DOR (rare for a dealership to do for a single customer). But the dealer failed to provide their Mass Tax ID number, so we have to call DOR and verify that the dealer is registered. Conundrum commence.

I can understand being frustrated. I get that. But there’s a time and a place where it’s just sort of… inappropriate.