If you’re unsure about a specific ruling or rate, you can always go to the state for clarification, right?

After receiving an Illinois state assessment claiming it owed a “User Fee” of $39.20, a company asked for an explanation of the charge and the state’s legal justification for assessing it.

Usually, states are more than willing to explain complicated rulings in detail or why certain assessments were reached. The reply from Illinois was no different — the revenue department sent back a pages-long explanation addressing the company’s question.

But it didn’t actually answer a thing.

The department claimed it couldn’t come up with a reason for the charge, but instead of amending its assessment — a nice “Sorry, we goofed,” might have worked — it offered up a General Information Letter (GIL) explaining the Retailers’ Occupation Tax Act and Service Occupation Tax bases.

There is some good news for the company: The state recommends visiting its Web site, where more of the same, unrelated information can be read at leisure.

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Tags: GIL, Illinois, Revenue department, Tax assessment, User fee