I just received the “Arts Income Tax Return” for 2016. We moved out of Portland two years ago. I notified you of that when you dunned us for the tax last year. I haven’t even stepped foot in the state. Yet a phone call to your office just now indicated that no one there has updated our records. Meanwhile, you’re probably harassing the people who currently live at our old address.
The arts tax bureaucracy should spend a fraction of the time on record-keeping that is spent on going after people who don’t owe it. Even when I lived in Portland, I didn’t owe you any money! To this day, I despise Portland’s arts tax and the people who administer it for putting me through the annual humiliation of proving I had no income. Let me correct that: putting me through the annual humiliation of proving I was an ARTIST who had no income. This year I had exactly $1,000 in income via art sales. I’m just thankful you’re not entitled to any of it.—Anonymous