Concern about denaturalization

[grc1818 2]

Hi everyone,

 

I recently became a citizen about 2 months ago and just found out that I owe some money in state taxes for 2023. I had no idea about this debt until today when I received a tax warrant. I’ve already paid the amount, but I’m worried now about the possibility of denaturalization since they ask you if you owe any state taxes in your interview and n400 form, and I answered no to that question every time. I'm worried that this could be seen as fraud/lying or something similar. As mentioned, I had no idea of this until today, but I'm now worried about this affecting my citizenship. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[OldUser 9,784]

The only advice is to pay taxes moving forward and be careful with answers.

 

Unless you owed hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in taxes, the likelihood of somebody revisiting your file is pretty low.

 

There has to be a reason such as:

a) You're sponsoring somebody for immigration benefit soon

b) You do something very bad that causes government to look into ways for denaturalizing you

 

There's millions of naturalized citizens living in the US today. I believe only few hundred denaturalization cases were filed in the last few years.

 

It's probably not going to happen.

 

It's not to say anybody applying now should be relaxed and lie in their application... Because while the risk of denaturalizaton is low, it's there.

Edited Wednesday at 01:00 AM by OldUser

[grc1818 2]

2 minutes ago, OldUser said:

The only advice is to pay taxes moving forward and be careful with answers.

 

Unless you owed hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in taxes, the likelihood of somebody revisiting your file is pretty low.

 

There has to be a reason such as:

a) You're sponsoring somebody for immigration benefit soon

b) You do something very bad that causes government to look into ways for denaturalizing you

 

It's not to say anybody applying now should be relaxed and lie in their application..

 

There's millions of naturalized citizens living in the US today. I believe only few hundred denaturalization cases were filed in the last few years.

 

It's probably not going to happen.

Thank you for your answer. I just got really worried as my interview and ceremony was just a couple months ago and I had no idea about this. The amount of money it's not even $200. I'm not sure why I didn't get any other mail about this before a tax warrant but I paid that immediately.

[Fr8dog 384]

Very unlikely this will cost you your citizenship unless they are looking for a technicality years down the line.

You did not lie during your interview. You stated you did not owe taxes and signed the whole thing "to the best of your knowledge" If it was known the USCIS would have had the data already. 

You were informed today and dealt with it so I really doubt this will become an issue. Should you end up dealing with USCIS for whatever reason down the road (petition for someone else?) and the question gets asked if you have ever owed back taxes, then you do need to report it.

[OldUser 9,784]

3 minutes ago, grc1818 said:

Thank you for your answer. I just got really worried as my interview and ceremony was just a couple months ago and I had no idea about this. The amount of money it's not even $200. I'm not sure why I didn't get any other mail about this before a tax warrant but I paid that immediately.

I wouldn't worry about it, especially if you truly answered all questions to your best knowledge at the time. If you knew and misrepresented, that would be a different story.

[TBoneTX 47,474]

Agree.  You answered in good faith according to what you knew at the time.  If you've settled the surprise debt, you can relax with a clear conscience.

[Dashinka 25,812]

I agree, you can only answer forms with the knowledge you have at the time.  Based on what you posted here, it would be hard for USCIS to prove you knew about it when you submitted the N400 (I.e. lied on your form), and reviewed that form at your interview (knowingly lying during your interview).  Keep the evidence in your files that shows when you were informed of the situation, and how quickly you dealt with it when informed.

 

Good Luck, and Congrats on becoming a USC.

Edited Wednesday at 09:36 AM by Dashinka

[JeanneAdil 7,075]

Was this result of  audit of taxes?

the state can also audit same as IRS

If so, you paid and are good to go

 

or didn't u realize u needed to file state returns ?

 

Audit may find addition errors or tax preparer error or didn't allow a deduction

it's not a lie / it's tax error

its good you paid upfront as that saves u a ton of interest and penalities

[mniceguy16 215]

12 hours ago, grc1818 said:

Hi everyone,

 

I recently became a citizen about 2 months ago and just found out that I owe some money in state taxes for 2023. I had no idea about this debt until today when I received a tax warrant. I’ve already paid the amount, but I’m worried now about the possibility of denaturalization since they ask you if you owe any state taxes in your interview and n400 form, and I answered no to that question every time. I'm worried that this could be seen as fraud/lying or something similar. As mentioned, I had no idea of this until today, but I'm now worried about this affecting my citizenship. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!

The mail came in a couple of months after you naturalized and you had none prior to your n400 interview, the dates on the documents are proof that you answered truthfully, save the IRS letter but like others said there is nothing to worry about and besides the amount is something that even if USCIS may have seen during background checks, they may had decided to let it slide…

[grc1818 2]

8 hours ago, Dashinka said:

I agree, you can only answer forms with the knowledge you have at the time.  Based on what you posted here, it would be hard for USCIS to prove you knew about it when you submitted the N400 (I.e. lied on your form), and reviewed that form at your interview (knowingly lying during your interview).  Keep the evidence in your files that shows when you were informed of the situation, and how quickly you dealt with it when informed.

 

Good Luck, and Congrats on becoming a USC.

Thank you! I called them this morning and they confirmed that apparently they tried mailing us a notice but the letter was sent back to them (no idea why), they also tried reaching out through a call to my husband, he forgot to mention and do the payment. But we already fixed it this morning and they said they didn't take any actions or anything, just they passed the tax warrant to a 3rd collector party or something similar to get the payment. They still have to mail us back a satisfaction of judgement. But yes, I never lied on those forms and was always very careful with USCIS (that's why it scared me), just didn't know all this until yesterday. 

[grc1818 2]

6 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

Was this result of  audit of taxes?

the state can also audit same as IRS

If so, you paid and are good to go

 

or didn't u realize u needed to file state returns ?

 

Audit may find addition errors or tax preparer error or didn't allow a deduction

it's not a lie / it's tax error

its good you paid upfront as that saves u a ton of interest and penalities

I filed the state and federal, but my husband and I are both self-employees, so we alway have to pay certain amount in both. We usually use Turbotax and sometimes we get a letter months after taxes saying we owe some more money (I guess because they were not 100% right), but we always have paid that immediately in the past. Idk how I missed this notice. Apparently he got called and forgot about it, and they tried to mail us a letter but it was sent back to the state dept. Everything should be fixed now as they said they didn't still take any actions or anything else.

[TBoneTX 47,474]

11 hours ago, grc1818 said:

Everything should be fixed now

It sounds so.  You can relax.

11 hours ago, grc1818 said:

Apparently he got called and forgot about it

It seems unusual to be called.  Around 99.44% of the time, such calls are scams.  In that light, maybe it was a boon that he forgot about it.  Anyway, all's well that ends well.