Posted on 02/21/2006 6:00:26 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Taxpayers who have fallen behind on their paperwork — way, way behind — have a $2 billion incentive to get caught up.
The IRS owes more than $2 billion to more than 1.7 million people who never filed tax returns for 2002. Half could get checks worth more than $570.
To collect the refunds, taxpayers must file a 2002 tax return before this year's April 17 filing deadline. The IRS urges taxpayers to check their records and seize the opportunity to claim their money.
"We want people to get the refunds they're entitled to," IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said Tuesday. "Taxpayers can't get a refund if they don't file a return."
The IRS gives people three years to claim a refund before the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury. Taxpayers face no penalties for filing a late return if the IRS owes them a refund.
People due a refund, in many cases, did not make enough money to be required to file a tax return but paid too much in taxes during the year. Taxes could have been withheld from paychecks, or a self-employed taxpayer may have made tax payments on earnings.
Some may be eligible for the earned income tax credit, a benefit designed to pull the working poor out of poverty. It can mean a big refund to families that meet its requirements.
In 2002, a person with two or more children who earned less than $33,178 may have qualified for the earned income tax credit. A person with one child who earned less than $11,060 may have qualified, and a person without children who earned less than $11,060 may be eligible to claim the credit.
Taxpayers must be caught up on their paperwork to get a refund check. Those due a refund for 2002 must have filed returns for 2003 and 2004, or else the IRS will hold the money until those returns are filed.
The tax refund could be applied to taxes owed, unpaid child support or unpaid federal debts, like student loans.
Forms and instructions for prior years can be found on the IRS Web site, or they can be ordered by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-800-829-3676). The IRS also has a toll-free help line, 1-800-829-1040.
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On the Net:
Internal Revenue Service: http://www.irs.gov
No return, no refund.....I don't have a problem with that.
I have this strange feeling more than a few of those non-filers for 2002 have no desire whatsoever to declare their existence to the IRS for any such paltry sum.
One might suspect it could be hazardous to a free wheeling cash and carry style of living.
Sounds like a sting operation to me. :)
"A hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man's business; the eye of the federal inspector will be in every man's counting house....The law will of necessity have inquisical features, it will provide penalties, it will create complicated machinery. Under it men will be hauled into courts distant from their homes. Heavy fines imposed by distant and unfamiliar tribunals will constantly menace the tax payer. An army of federal inspectors, spies, and detectives will descend upon the state."
-- Virginian House Speaker Richard E. Byrd, 1910, predicting the consequences of an income tax.
Don'chya jess love the income and payroll tax system and tax witholding.
Bug yah if you owe, bug yah if yah don't.
IRS the we just want to "reach out and touch someone" kinda folks.
A Taxreform bump for you all.
If anyone would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25) offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright and replace them with with a national retail sales tax administered by the states.
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
There is a penalty of 20 years in jail for willful failure to file and income tax return.
I say it's high time we took action against these criminals who are giving the government too much money!
There is a penalty of 20 years in jail for willful failure to file and income tax return.
Provided you know who's doing it.
Kinda hard to ferret out in a cash a carry underground such folks tend to live in.
With an income payroll tax system, dependant on persons to report on themselves (selfemployed etc.), cash, no reports, person doesn't exist as far IRS and any enforcement is concerned.
But these people have Social Security numbers, employers, and a W-2. Otherwise they wouldn't have withholding and a refund coming. You could ask their employers for their address, and find them quite easily.
I've a funny feeling that government paperwork is far too cumbersome, time-consuming, and intimidating for most people to claim due benefits. You actually have to be smart to make a living claiming welfare. You have to make welfare receipt your career just as doctors make medicine their career. Most Americans are either too stupid or too busy doing more enjoyable activities.
True, unless they left their jobs and moved to parts unknown during the year.
Need to track down them scofflaws to. Can't have anyone letting government keep all that loot.
Jess don' seem right somehow, to let them people go. Enabler's that's what they are. ENABLERS!!!
What %age of illegals filed for tax refunds?
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