Oklahoma sent him a $5,000 tax bill. There was just one problem: He lives in Colorado
The record suggests that he did not pay the state taxes in 2019 — the year Doty says he was in Colorado
A man named Michael Doty found himself in an ugly web of tax implications when he moved back and forth between Oklahoma and Colorado from 2018 to 2020. Despite being an honest taxpayer, he received a notice from the Oklahoma Tax Commission (OTC), claiming an unpaid tax of more than $5,000. The letter was surprising, especially since the record suggests that he did not pay the state taxes in 2019 — the year Doty says he was in Colorado with his wife. KFOR News shared his story on YouTube on July 28, 2026.
Dilemma of double tax
All this tax turmoil arose because Doty had been moving between Oklahoma and Colorado during that time. In 2018, he said, he and his wife moved to Colorado and then returned to Oklahoma in 2020. Upon returning, Doty received multiple notices from OTC about unpaid taxes from 2019, a year when he was still in Colorado. The notices charged him $5,657.29, claiming extra fees for penalties and interest. "I pay my taxes. I’ve done what I was supposed to do. I did it by the book,” Doty told the outlet.
'I don’t have to look over my shoulder every three or four years'
Doty asserted that he had paid the Colorado state taxes and even has paperwork to prove it. "I just want this resolved and finalized. Well, I don’t have to look over my shoulder every three or four years and wonder what the state is going to do to me," he said. Interestingly, Doty had faced the same issue a few years ago. He thought he had resolved the issue by submitting the paperwork. But the OTC served him another letter, claiming unpaid taxes. Thankfully, Doty's wife had saved the paperwork, which the couple re-submitted to prove their innocence.
Caught between taxation
Given that around 4.02 million people in Oklahoma pay billions of dollars in taxes each year, cases like these cannot be swept under the rug. When an individual changes states, it puts them at risk of being assessed double taxation, which is what happened with Michael Doty. In fact, according to Ebiz Filing, a double taxation claim can arise from several errors. For instance, authorities failing to update records, ignoring day count thresholds, assuming that the mailing address determines residency, and missing part-year resident filings.
'They've got you'
When the news outlet reached out to OTC for comment on the incident, representative Emily Haxton said that although they can't disclose information about an individual taxpayer, they can certainly verify whether the correspondence to the taxpayer was legitimate. In fact, taxpayers can reach the OTC directly if they believe the notice was irrelevant. As of now, Doty is resentful and expects the issue to be resolved. “If you can’t fight them with the records, then they’ve got you," he added.
'Everything is a scam'
Meanwhile, reacting to the incident, @crazeokc commented, "Everything is a scam. OTC knew they were in another state; they were just hoping they couldn't prove it." Similarly, @resurrectiongarage1506 shared, "California got me; it seized my federal tax return for a tax bill for a year I didn’t live there. I had irrefutable evidence I was a full legal resident of the other state for that entire calendar year, actually more than that year, but that one is what they dinged me on. I had a driver's license, rental lease, vehicle registration, and utility bills. I had paystubs showing I showed up for work in a state 2000 miles away from California, and they wouldn’t budge."
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