CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — 200 tax documents are missing from the Chesterfield County’s Commissioner of Revenue office.
On April 6, the office prepared and processed state income tax returns and estimated tax filings. Jenefer Hughes, the Commissioner of Revenue in Chesterfield County, said her office packed the tax documents in a sturdy box with the forms required by the Virginia Department of Taxation.
UPS picked up the box to deliver it to the Department, but days later they claimed that they never received it. Hughes said they opened a ticket with UPS to track down the box, but UPS closed their claim without finding it.
The Tax Commissioner of Incident was notified about the missing tax documents and assured taxpayers that their filings would not be considered late. The Commissioner’s office sent copies of the missing documents to the Department of Taxation and received confirmation that they were filed on time and ready for processing.
“This was an isolated incident, affecting only the taxpayers whose tax filings were packaged in this box. Safeguarding taxpayers’ personal information and transparency are foundational to the operation of my office,” Hughes told 8News in a statement. “Our internal controls were set up to detect and mitigate this type of incident, in the unlikely event it would occur. The actions of my staff limited the impact of the issue on these taxpayers.”
The Commissioner’s office sent a letter to every person who was impacted by this incident. They also offered them Lifelock’s credit monitoring services for one year to help protect their identity.
Hughes said her office stopped using UPS on April 7 “due to degradation of service.” They’re now using FedEx, which automatically provides a delivery confirmation. As of Monday, UPS has not found the missing box.
