I.R.S. has frozen refunds of 1.6 million mostly poor people without notice

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/opinion/20fri1.html?th&emc=th

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Published: January 20, 2006

The taxpayer advocate at the Internal Revenue Service told Congress last week that since 2001, the I.R.S. has labeled as fraudulent the tax returns of 1.6 million people and has frozen their refunds without notice, although most appear to have done nothing wrong. Overwhelmingly, the taxpayers are poor and are simply applying for a break created for them.

Members of the staff of the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees the I.R.S., met in private yesterday with crime investigators from the agency. The committee's chairman then issued a letter to the Treasury secretary with the right goal: correcting the I.R.S.'s apparent failure to balance the rights of taxpayers against the need to fight fraud. But the issues raised by the frozen refunds don't end there. Congress should hold public hearings.

The taxpayer advocate represents taxpayers whose problems are not satisfactorily resolved, then reports each year to Congress on the most serious problems encountered. According to the 2005 annual report, 28,000 taxpayers who asked the advocate for help last year turned out to have refunds that had been frozen by I.R.S. investigators because of a finding or suspicion of fraud, or a previous finding of fraud that resulted in an automatic freeze on subsequent refunds. The number of complaints was nearly double the number for the year before.

The advocate, Nina Olson, had her office analyze a representative sample of 500 of the 28,000 frozen refunds. It turned out that 66 percent of the returns deserved the full refund, and 14 percent deserved a partial refund. The analysis also found that the median income of these taxpayers was $13,300 and the median refund was $3,519, which reflects a tax break aimed at the poor that's called the earned-income tax credit. These taxpayers typically waited eight and a half months for refunds that were, on average, about a quarter of their annual incomes.

[Catch22Dem]

1. I can't believe there are that many people who have done theirs already!

I haven't even received all my shit yet!

[bullimiami]

2. a slap in the face for a drop in the bucket.

the rich bastards get away with umpteen billions while these people, many living under the poverty line, depend on these hundreds or thousands heavily. bushcos cruelty knows no bounds.

[dajoki]

6. Compassionate conservative...

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[nebula]

3. So what else is new

The IRS has been ripping off the poor and middle class ever since it was created.

[aquart]

4. Dirtier and dirtier.

What are they doing with the float?

[scarletlib]

15. Bullets for Baghdad.

[dajoki]

17. cash for cronies n/t

[NVMojo]

5. the culture of corruption continues ...balancing the federal deficit on

the backs of the poor ...shame, shame, shame.

[dajoki]

7. as usual n/t

[mcctatas]

8. Here's my ongoing personal nightmare with our frozen return...

I filed last Feb. and months past...no return. We have claimed the EIC for three years since I went back to school and my husbands job went to Canada (leaving him a self-employed painter) and never had a problem. Anyway, in June I finally called and was told my claim was being processed, but if my refund does not come in 6 weeks to call again. 6 weeks later I call again and am told that my claim is under review "For what?" says I "I don't have that information in front of me, but if you fill out form (i forget the #) and enclose a check for $70 we can send you a copy of your record" Long story short, in November I recieve a request that I send my childrens school attendance and Dr.'s record of appointments as part of a "random audit" (children I have been claiming since '94 and '95) I did and am still waiting. Fucking soul-less bastards, We paid in to the IRS for most of our adult lives and now we are scum because we're suddenly poor!:grr:

[dajoki]

10. they stole my...

daughter's refund to pay for a student loan while she was still attending school. BASTARDS!!

[0007]

14. Argh!

[BigYawn]

11. We desperately need to simplify taxes, eliminate IRS,

too many hours spent by too many people every friggin year
figuring taxes. Such a waste of human resources. But the tax
lawyers, accountants love it.

[scarletlib]

16. War on those with the least resources to fight them

It is just that simple. Those who claim the EITC obviously do not have money to hire lawyers to fight this sort of action. Many are working way more than 40 hours per week just to pay rent and put some food on the table.

They (IRS and its Masters--bushco) just figure most will give up and just not file for the EITC anymore.

They did this to our daughter in law (before she came to live with us). She was owed over $8000 for a number of years when she filed and they just refused to give her the money. They wanted birth certificates, rent reciepts, and god knows what else. She would send it in and they would lose it. She had correspondence from about 4 diferent IRS Centers in the country. Why four? My guess is they were shipping stuff/responsibility to different offices to make it harder for the person to get the mess straightened out and get the money.

We finally did get her a full refund of all money owed. We got it all together and sent all information with a cover letter to all the offices involved. We also kept copies of everything.
It took a few months.

Also, and this may help you: There is an advocate program out there that is free. I am not sure if it is provided by the IRS but the advocate can help you. Our daughter in law had an advocate who also helped her as we were getting all the information together for a final attack to get her the money before we hired a lawyer.

PS, in our letter we did also use that threat to get a lawyer as well.

[AtomicKitten]

9. poor people don't have the resources to fight this crap. n/t

[kerrygoddess]

12. Kerry, Obama Fight to Protect EITC, Tax Refunds for Families Affected

Kerry, Obama Fight to Protect EITC, Tax Refunds for American Families Affected by IRS Freeze
January 19, 2006

Earlier this month, the National Taxpayer Advocate Report to Congress showed that “Criminal investigators at the Internal Revenue Service froze more than 120,000 taxpayers’ refunds last year on suspicion of fraud.” Many of the tax returns were filed by low-income workers, including some who claimed the earned-income tax credit. These low-income taxpayers have been seriously hurt by this program and many who receive EITC have seen their refunds frozen.

Today, Senators John Kerry and Senator Barack Obama sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Everson asking that the Criminal Investigation Questionable Refund Program be temporarily suspended until questions are answered about the program and an assessment of the value of the program can be made. Below is a copy of the letter:

MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1704

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

13. I know they have some cross eyed

people working for the IRS, I didn't get my return back until September and I sent it in March. The Idiots tried to say my accountant filled the form out wrong, but they looked at one line and calculated a number from another line and tried to say I had to pay them $350 dollars. I went around and around with them from may until september and they kept on insisting they where right hoping I'd just pay them, Finally I was able to get them to realize their mistake. Up until November I was still getting calls from them twice a week saying I owned them money.