Nearly 1 billion in tax refunds about to be lost

A taxpayer who is due a refund but who fails to file a return has three years from the due date of the return to file the return and claim the refund. After that the refund is lost. The IRS estimates that there is 950 million dollars in unclaimed refunds for the 2012 tax year. In general the ability to claim those refunds expires on April 16, 2016. If you have unfiled tax returns and need assistance filing them, we can help.

Ex-IRS agent facing trial for bribery

Former IRS agent, Paul G Hurley, resigned after being caught accepting a bribe from a medical marijuana dispensary in exchange for a huge reduction in their audit assessment and is now facing trial on the charges.  At least someone at the IRS is held accountable when laws or broken.  I wonder if the executives at IRS that were responsible for the targeting scandal will ever be held accountable for their actions.

ID thieves impersonate the IRS

Even though the IRS had some success in 2015 shutting down ID theft scams involving people impersonating IRS agents, the problem appears to be getting more wide spread. The most common scams involve phone calls or emails from someone claiming to be collecting back taxes owed to the IRS. Many of them threaten the recipient with arrest if they do not make immediate payment. They usually request bank account numbers, debit card numbers or other personal information they can use to steal your identity and your assets. The vast majority of these scams are done by phone or email, but in some parts of the country they are leaving fake notes on peoples doors threatening legal action if you fail to contact the number on the note promptly.

Here’s some useful information from the IRS about their collection practices.

The IRS will not:
• Call you to demand immediate payment. The IRS will not call you if you owe taxes without first sending you a bill in the mail.
• Demand that you pay taxes and not allow you to question or appeal the amount you owe.
• Require that you pay your taxes a certain way. For instance, require that you pay with a prepaid debit card.
• Ask for your credit or debit card numbers over the phone.
• Threaten to bring in police or other agencies to arrest you for not paying

These scams were mostly aimed at senior citizens in the past, but they appear to be expanding to many others now. Many of those targeted do not owe taxes to the IRS, but some do. If you owe back taxes to the IRS and want to know your rights and responsibilities, we can help.

IRS withdraws controversial regulation

The IRS has withdrawn its proposed regulation which would have had charities collecting and reporting social security numbers of all donors who gave over 250 to the charity.  The proposed regulation drew a large negative reaction from charities concerned about the additional record keeping requirements and numerous people concerned with an increased risk in ID theft by having social security numbers used more widely.  This goes to show that even the IRS listens to taxpayers occasionally.

New proposal from IRS has charities and taxpayers grumbling…

especially those concerned about ID theft.  Current law requires charities to provide a written acknowledgement to anyone who donates a gift of 250 or more on any given day.  This new proposal allows a charity to instead elect to provide the IRS with an annual list of names and social security numbers of individuals who donated to them.  Charities don’t like it because they would be required to obtain social security numbers from their donors and then securely store that information.  Many individuals don’t like the idea because it means they would need to provide their social security numbers to each applicable charity to which they donate.  Since ID thieves have successfully stolen financial data from major retailers, banks, and even the IRS web site, I’m sure they would be happy for the opportunity to steal that information from charities.

Notice to Late Filers

Each year the IRS shuts down efiling near year end to prepare for the following filing season. You can efile late tax returns for 2012 – 2014 but the efiling system shuts down at 11:59 am on Saturday the 21st of November for 2015. They have not announced yet when the system will be up again for efiling. See here for details.