Sooey asks for help

[Nikki]

in a new thread, a lightweight named Gracie needs help dealing with the IRS. She started posting about a year ago regarding changes the IRS made to her husband's withholding claims.

Hello,
I'm hoping someone can steer me in the right direction. IRS has sent four 2566Sc/CG letters-proposed individual income tax assessment. They want to go back as far as 2002. Is there anything that we can do to stop this? They have his status and Married filing Separate. We have not filed since 1998.
Thanks,
gracie

Any one care to help her out?

[The Operative]

Any one care to help her out?

Sure. Follow these steps...

1. Go to a tax professional.

2. File tax returns for any years you did not file.

3. Call IRS, repent, and be prepared to pay.

[hartley]

Any one care to help her out?

Sure. Follow these steps...

1. Go to a tax professional.

2. File tax returns for any years you did not file.

3. Call IRS, repent, and be prepared to pay.

Maybe not. It's possible they might be due refunds, if they file MFJ returns for those years, and can itemize deductions, where the substitute returns for him are MFS and taking the standard deduction. That happened quite a bit, actually, when I worked for the IRS.

[The Operative]

Any one care to help her out?

Sure. Follow these steps...

1. Go to a tax professional.

2. File tax returns for any years you did not file.

3. Call IRS, repent, and be prepared to pay.

Maybe not. It's possible they might be due refunds, if they file MFJ returns for those years, and can itemize deductions, where the substitute returns for him are MFS and taking the standard deduction. That happened quite a bit, actually, when I worked for the IRS.

I was being facetious. You are right in that they might be due refunds when proper deductions and filing status are used. As for the years prior to 2002, it is possible that the IRS filed substitute returns for them in 1998 through 2001 that showed they were due refunds and might be the reason they haven't been contacted by the IRS until now.

[ASITStands]

That happened quite a bit, actually, when I worked for the IRS.

I've seen a lot of it too. All that fussing and fighting for nothing.

Of course, earlier years [i.e., those beyond the three-limit limitation] will not be eligible for refunds and credits, but "zeroing out the account" by filing returns is always good. I tell them, "It's always good to file a tax return when you don't owe much of anything."

And, many in the tax movement actually owe less than they think.

[LPC]

The IRS regularly issues press releases warning people who have not filed income tax returns that they are about to lose their refunds due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. For example, see this March 2008 press release in which the IRS announced that they had $1.2 billion in possible refunds that would expire unless returns were filed before 4/15/2008.

(But then again, it might have been just one of those scams to lure people into filing, like the police sometimes tell fugitives that they have won a prize and then arrest them when they show up to claim it.)

[Judge Roy Bean]

Just curious. What if the returns were filed?

When you're down in the nickel and dime world of a lot of little people out here in flyover country, you tend to find things that point out how the statistical fringe is sometimes indicative, if not just funny.

I've seen one bankruptcy case where the IRS can identify the CPA who filed but can't seem to find the filing itself. How that professional's name got attached to a non-filing is still a mystery.

There will always be anomalies. It's the patterns that matter.