Strange Arkansas Law

[Mallette]

I am not a lawyer and never played one on TV, but I got caught up in an Arkansas law that it doesn't appear to need a law degree to find absurd.  

 

I rec'd a letter in late August from the state of Arkansas saying that I would not be allowed to renew my auto registration because I'd failed to file my state income tax form in 2015.  Thing was, I did not live in Arkansas a single day in 2015 having moved here in January, 2016.  Made no sense.  I called them. It took 3 calls over several days to get someone in Little Rock to say they had any idea what I was talking about and to just go to DMV and register my car.  Finally, I read the letter to one of them and they said "Really?  We'll look into it."  Seems they'd never heard of it, at least at the customer service level.  When they got in touch with me they said it was all true.  I asked how they determined where I lived in 2015 and was told that when I filed my Federal tax for that year I reported an Arkansas address.  I responded, "Of course I did.  Would have been fraud otherwise as it was April 2016 and I filed from my new address."  They ignored that part and said I would have to prove the negative, that is, I'd have to prove I didn't live in Arkansas while working in south Houston in 2015.  So, I reviewed what they required as proof.  Arkansas utility bill.  No good...utilities all in my brothers name as I am temporarily living in our old home place he owns.  Utility bill from old place.  I don't get that stuff and it was history.  Home purchase or lease in Arkansas.  No good, this is a family deal with no paperwork.  I had my son's transfer from Texas schools to Texarkana in January, 2016 but they wouldn't buy that.  This went on for weeks and I got a warning, then a ticket, for driving an unregistered vehicle.  Only one I have, and I couldn't afford a rental.  Finally, someone up there realized this was ridiculous and released the lock on my registration.

 

Point is that it is incredible that there would be a law passed that used data from one year to somehow prove where you were in the previous year.  Open to thoughts from all as I pleaded not guilty to the failure to register ticket and go to court in May.  I have a fool for a lawyer, so any thoughts would be useful.  

 

Dave

[Jeff Matthews]

Many criminal and violation statutes provide exceptions to prosecution, defenses, etc.  What does your statute say?

[wvu80]

23 minutes ago, Mallette said:

They ignored that part and said I would have to prove the negative, that is, I'd have to prove I didn't live in Arkansas while working in south Houston in 2015.

Oh man. 

 

Sooo...do you feel better about yourself when you're not beating your wife? 

 

(example ^^^ of Arkansas logic)

[Mallette]

Those from West Virginia are our natural friends and the logic quite similar.

7 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

(example ^^^ of Arkansas logic)

Dave

[wvu80]

26 minutes ago, Mallette said:

Those from West Virginia are our natural friends and the logic quite similar.  Dave

Guilty! 

[Mallette]

39 minutes ago, wvu80 said:

Guilty! 

I knew that...

Dave

[T2K]

 

Tell them you were living with your cousin and only having occasional sex with her. Then call Roy Mooore in N. Alabama.

[dtel's wife]

Your state income tax return from 2015 should prove where you lived.  I would assume your state return shows taxes paid in TX, as should your W2s.

[Jeff Matthews]

13 minutes ago, dtel's wife said:

Your state income tax return from 2015 should prove where you lived.  I would assume your state return shows taxes paid in TX, as should your W2s.

Texas does not have an income tax.

[dtel's wife]

Just now, Jeff Matthews said:

Texas does not have an income tax.

Well I didn’t know that. So what about W2s that should show your TX address?  Or car registrations from TX?  You may also be able to contact your utility companies in TX and request a print out showing you resided there for the year 2015??  

 

I think if the judge is presented with enough evidence to show you resided in TX he may find in your favor???

 

Just trying to help out. 

[Mallette]

Yes to all the above.  No state income tax statement as I was a Texas resident.  We shall see what the judge says in due course.  Main point is why the state would judge residency for a prior year for a legal document filed in another year.  It's absurd...

 

Dave

[oldtimer]

It is absurd.  There is a fundamental issue of government overreach.  The state is assuming residency without knowledge of such.  I recall a similar case where a friend was being hounded by the state of New Mexico for state income taxes after said friend had ceased being a resident, having moved to Texas.  

[Mallette]

14 hours ago, dtel's wife said:

I think if the judge is presented with enough evidence to show you resided in TX he may find in your favor???

I'll take what I can get...but the judge SHOULD find that part of the law unconstitutional.  It is absurd to use one's address when filing Federal taxes as evidence of a person's residence when the taxes were paid.

Dave

[babadono]

"I was born in a welfare state ruled by bureaucracy controlled by civil servants and people dressed in gray. Got no liberty, got no privacy cuz the 21st century people took it all away from me"------ The Kinks

[Max2]

All is well that ends well.    My wife had a company car that was sold to a Texas resident or possibly fleet company.   We received toll charges under her name for almost two years even though the vehicle was not registered in her name.  I didn't know if we were ever going to get someone that could do anything.  Its amazing to me these days that anything actual gets done with so many automated decisions going on.

[babadono]

Hey Dave, is this the biggest SNAFU you been involved with vis a vis the government? If so you are truly blessed.

[JohnJ]

Dim-wits in charge.

Utter Bullya!

[Jeff Matthews]

7 hours ago, Mallette said:

... but the judge SHOULD find that part of the law unconstitutional. 

Dave

I don't think that will happen, but give the judge a good, old rant just the same.  Make him feel good about the government he works for.

 

I'd recommend you just be polite and not bog him down in your lay opinions on the legal system.  Basically, just tell your facts and dispute the state's position that evidence of your claim to have an Arkansas residence in 2017 is proof that it was your residence in 2016.

 

Dig up some old receipts from the end of the year.  Restaurant receipts.  Credit card charges, or whatever, that show you lived in the Houston vicinity.  "See, Judge.  We were still eating at the Jack in the Box in Seabrook at that time."

 

[Mallette]

2 hours ago, Jeff Matthews said:

I'd recommend you just be polite and not bog him down in your lay opinions on the legal system. 

I hear you, Jeff. and will do my best on that.  I am certainly aware I am no lawyer and the best I can do at playing one will simply piss him off.  Probably more along the lines of that I simply do not understand how where I was in one year is in any way relevant to where I was the previous year.  Probably won't hurt to let him know they acknowledged as much and allowed me to register my vehicle without the "proof" they'd required.  Let the judge deal with that.  But I am sure that you can see that the whole concept is beyond belief.  If such laws stand, then law itself becomes meaningless.  

 

Dave

[Travis In Austin]

1 hour ago, Jeff Matthews said:

I don't think that will happen, but give the judge a good, old rant just the same.  Make him feel good about the government he works for.

 

I'd recommend you just be polite and not bog him down in your lay opinions on the legal system.  Basically, just tell your facts and dispute the state's position that evidence of your claim to have an Arkansas residence in 2017 is proof that it was your residence in 2016.

 

Dig up some old receipts from the end of the year.  Restaurant receipts.  Credit card charges, or whatever, that show you lived in the Houston vicinity.  "See, Judge.  We were still eating at the Jack in the Box in Seabrook at that time."

 

Concur.

 

BUT, you won the battle on the registration being unlocked, and got a ticket while you were battling it out right?  

 

I think you also want to show, maybe even more so, is the reason your car wasn't registered was that you tried to register it and they wouldn't let you. By the time you diligently were able to get someone to understand, you got a ticket.

 

As to why this is, you are living in the one town in the United States which is the reason for this whole thing.  I'm guessing that it costs more to register a car in Arkansas (is it based on FMV like in Nevada?) then it does in Texas.  If that's the case, everyone who lives on the AR side of the line trys to find a TX address to register their vehicles (work, relative, etc.).

 

They used to do this crap all the time at UT.  DPS comes over and cruises all of the parking lots and issues tickets to everyone with out of state plates because you are supposed to register after 30 days of moving here.; they didn't realize that students are exempt (this isn't true in a lot of states).

 

Texas has very weird laws on vehicle registration and they are all because of Texarkana and back in the day when people used to commute back and forth from Mexico to work.

 

A non-resident owner of a privately owned vehicle that is not registered in the state may not make more than 5 occasional trips in any calendar month in the state using the vehicle. Each occasional trip into the state may not exceed 5 days.

 

A non-resident owner of a privately owned passenger car that is not registered in the state or country in which the person resides and that is not operated for compensation may operate the car in this state for the period in which the car’s license plates are valid.

 

Exempt from this are active-duty members of the US Armed Forces and full-time students from another state attending a Texas college or university.

 

A resident of an adjoining state or country may operate a privately owned and registered vehicle to go to and from the person’s place of regular employment and to make trips to purchase merchandise if the vehicle is not operated for compensation.