Democrats love to tax people, and several blue states have tried to impose exit taxes or collect back taxes from former residents who fled the state. But this time, the Oregon Department of Revenue reportedly swiped $20,000 from a California woman's bank account, claiming she owed unpaid income taxes as well as penalties.
There's just one problem: that woman never lived in Oregon. The state just stole her money.
And then they told the woman it would take months to get the stolen money bak.
A woman who lives and works in California had $20,000 taken out of her bank account by The Oregon Department of Revenue
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) May 10, 2026
She’s never lived in Oregon yet they were able to get her bank account information and take her money
Oregon said the woman owed the money in unpaid income… pic.twitter.com/lrmsEAzRhB
The Oregonian OregonLive helped the woman.
According to reporter Aimee Green, the woman first believed she was the victim of cyber thieves.
"Then she discovered what really happened," Green said. "The Oregon Department of Revenue had siphoned the money from her account for unpaid personal income taxes. The problem was, she had never lived or worked in Oregon, and it was all a big mistake."
"The woman, Qiumin Zhu, told me when she called the Oregon Department of Revenue and told them it was a mistake, they told it would be five months, maybe more, before they got back to her," Green continued. "That's when I got involved."
"The address that the Oregon Department of Revenue thought that this California woman lived at was actually a park in Hillsboro," Green noted. "Qiumin Zhu told me within days of signing an authorization form allowing the Oregon Department of Revenue to talk to me about her case, a manager called and told her that the department would give her her money back. The department told me that it sent the check this week."
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Here's more from Green's story, which raises more questions:
In mid-April, her bank notified her that the Department of Revenue planned to take another $3,500 from her accounts. Zhu shared the notification documents with The Oregonian/OregonLive. She said she tried to stop the transactions from taking place, but the bank told her that was impossible.
Zhu said she again called the Department of Revenue and was told it apparently wasn’t aware that it’d already taken nearly $20,000 from her. It was again attempting to collect the money, she said. Zhu said she worried Oregon would start garnishing money from her paychecks, too. She said she warned her employer.
...
The department, however, said Friday that The Oregonian/OregonLive’s involvement had nothing to do with speeding up the department’s timeline for getting Zhu back her cash. In fact, spokesperson Audrey Mechling said that within days of Zhu first contacting the department in late March, “it was determined internally that there was no tax obligation, and that a refund was due to Ms. Zhu.”
The department, however, “absolutely fell below our customer service standards” in not communicating that to Zhu until The Oregonian/OregonLive pressed the issue, Mechling said in a written statement. Mechling also said that an employee never should have told Zhu it could be five months before she heard back.
“We never want to over promise, but we should be as accurate as possible when communicating with taxpayers whose lives have been disrupted by DOR collection actions,” Mechling said.
Green also said attorneys and accountants Zhu contacted basically told her the money was gone and she had no recourse.
But questions remain.
How did Oregon get her bank account info? Did someone in California's Department of Revenue give it to Oregon? Was Zhu the victim of identity theft? Why did the department say it would take months to get back to Zhu when a reporter was able to get her answers within days?
It's scary to think governments of states were you've never lived and work can just collect taxes.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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