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Some New Jersey taxpayers may overpay their taxes because of a mistaken Division of Taxation notice. The state says it's not sending a second notice to tell taxpayers of the mistake.

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New Jersey wrongly notified about 2,000 taxpayers that they underpaid their 2013 taxes, but the state won’t notify them about the error unless the taxpayer asks, possibly causing taxpayers to send the state money that wasn’t owed.

About one percent of the more than 242,000 taxpayers who made an estimated tax payment in 2013 received a letter from the state in recent weeks saying they owed more money on their tax bills.

"Taxpayers inadvertently received underpayment notices because of an error that was discovered on the estimated payment voucher," said Department of Treasury spokesman Joseph Perone.

Perone said the state did not tabulate the total of the wrongly billed tax amounts.

Meg Bracelin of Long Valley received one of the warnings.

"I knew I made all of my estimated tax payments per my accountant’s instructions," she said. "As a citizen I thought to myself, ‘They already have quite enough of my money.'"

She said she almost paid the $410 bill, but at the last minute called her tax preparer, Gail Rosen.

While Rosen investigated Bracelin’s case, she said she heard from a lot of her other estimated tax clients who said they received the same notice. After talking to other accountants whose estimated tax clients also received the notices, Rosen said she realized the issue was more widespread.

What’s worse, Rosen said, is that the state hasn’t sent new notices to taxpayers to tell them there was an error.

"What worries me is that some taxpayers are just going to pay this erroneous bill that they don’t owe because they just want it to go away," she said.

The state confirmed it isn’t sending notifications to the affected taxpayers to tell them the amounts are not owed. Instead, Perone said, the state explains the problem when someone calls and asks.

"All of the accounts have been corrected. Those taxpayers do not owe anything," he said, noting the error was fixed quickly. "It is unfortunate for those taxpayers, but it had a relatively small impact because we have 3.9 million filers."

But without official notification from the state, Rosen, the accountant, said some may pay the amount indicated on the notice.

"Unless you call or write to New Jersey and ask, it’s possible you’ll never know if you made an overpayment," she said.

Karin Price Mueller can be reached at kmueller@starledger.com

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