
IRS owes taxpayers $1 billion for 2008
More than 1 million taxpayers who were due a refund failed to file. If you're one of them, you have until April 17 to claim your money.
This post is by Kelly Phillips Erb of Forbes.com.
The Internal Revenue Service has extra cash: more than $1 billion in extra cash. Some of it might belong to you.
More than 1 million taxpayers who were due a refund failed to file a federal income tax return in 2008, resulting in more than $1 billion sitting and waiting to be collected. The IRS estimates that half of those refunds are worth more than $600 each.
How much is a billion dollars? I know we throw around these “illions” (millions, billions, trillions) like they’re nothing, but it’s a lot of money. How much? If the IRS gave away a dollar an hour, it would take more than 114,155 years to get rid of $1 billion. Yeah.
Who is owed the most money? By the numbers, the IRS estimates that more folks in California (122,500) are owed refunds than taxpayers in any other state; the state with the least number of taxpayers owed a refund is Vermont (1,700). Taxpayers in Oregon are due the smallest average refund ($527), while taxpayers in Wyoming are owed the largest average refund ($773). (Post continues below video.)
If you are due a refund, you have to file a return. The return must be filed (meaning signed, properly addressed and postmarked) no later than April 17, 2012. If you are due a refund, there is no penalty for filing late. However, after April 17, 2012, the statute of limitations will have run out for 2008 returns, and you’ll be out of luck and your share will become property of the U.S. government.
Why might you be due a refund? Maybe you had too much withholding from your wages or made too much in quarterly payments. You might have been eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit because you didn’t get a stimulus check that year (assuming you were entitled to one). You might have also been eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit. These are refundable credits -- but you can’t receive the benefit of them unless you file.
Of course, if you owe the feds money (for student loans or back taxes, for example) or if your refund is otherwise earmarked for seizure (such as child support obligations), your refund will be offset by the amounts owed.
If you need a copy of the 2008 tax form, you can download one as a pdf here, visit the IRS website or call toll-free 1-800-TAX-FORM (1-800-829-3676).
Remember that you’ll need your forms W-2, 1098, 1099 or 5498 from 2008 in order to file. If you don’t have them, request copies from your employer, bank or other payer. If that doesn’t work, you can try ordering them from the IRS, filing a federal form 4506-T or calling 1-800-908-9946.
More from Forbes.com and MSN Money:
- Citibank issues forms 1099 for frequent flyer miles, surprising customers and IRS
- Even rich heirs deserve a fair shake from the IRS
- 18 ways to get tax-free income
-By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don't propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one President, and nine Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House now? He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts -- of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it's because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan ...
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power.
Ah yes the IRS... If you miss your three year window you don't get refunded. However, they have 10 years to review and correct and come after you if you owe them. I am owed a refund for 2004 but since I amended after 3 years I owe them 10K. I have liens on my house and wages garnished. I don't owe them a thing in reality. But the error was not caught in three years of filing.so they don't care, I owe what was originally filed in error. With penalties and interest it is at $15,000 and I have lost my bank accounts and wages. I am trying to sell my house to pay them off before it gets auctioned. You have three years to get it right else the IRS does not care about anything after 3 years except getting their money before 10 years. I lost my family and health due to this stupid rule. If they have 10 years to collect I should have 10 years to CORRECT!
Maybe a portion of the funds were paid in by people using Social Security numbers of deceased people and they don't want to file a return because the payment would have someone elses name on it. Given that California has the most unclaimed returns and California has the most illegal aliens, stands to reason this is a possibility. I wonder how far Texas is down the list. My guess is not too far.
Too bad it is not legal for the IRS to reconcile their records with the Social Security Administration. That would help identify some of the potential problems.
Sounds like a trap to me--since when does the IRS care about this. What they are trying to do, is get all the people that "didn't file returns" to file, guess what--then they can see who they are without alot of extra work. Then they will charge these people penaltys and interest thereby cleaning up their "books" for 08' with one advertisement.
Remember the cops game--"You won a new TV, come down to the Senior Center to claim it" everyone with a warrant got a notice, and most showed up.
"You can't fix stupid."
RELATED ARTICLES
DATA PROVIDERS
Copyright © 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.
Quotes are real-time for NASDAQ, NYSE and AMEX. See delay times for other exchanges.
Fundamental company data and historical chart data provided by Thomson Reuters (click for restrictions). Real-time quotes provided by BATS Exchange. Real-time index quotes and delayed quotes supplied by Interactive Data Real-Time Services. Fund summary, fund performance and dividend data provided by Morningstar Inc. Analyst recommendations provided by Zacks Investment Research. StockScouter data provided by Verus Analytics. IPO data provided by Hoover's Inc. Index membership data provided by SIX Financial Information.
Japanese stock price data provided by Nomura Research Institute Ltd.; quotes delayed 20 minutes. Canadian fund data provided by CANNEX Financial Exchanges Ltd.

