The $1.2 Billion Question - Does The IRS Owe You Money ?
Posted on March 23, 2008
Filed Under News |
It is tax season again. And if you are “on the ball” you may have already filed your tax return. If you are like me, you are filing it soon (I always seem to file it in March for some reason).
I hope, for your sake, that you do file your return (however late). If you don’t, you may be one of the millions of Americans, each year, who are due refunds but do not collect them because they never filed!!!
$1.2 Billion Owed To TaxPayers
The IRS has estimated that there are 1.3 million taxpayers who are owed refunds for tax year 2004.
In California, about 149,500 people are owed a median refund of $507 (half can expect more, and half less), while in Texas, 96,600 taxpayers are owed a median of $582, according to IRS estimates.
In Florida, 93,900 taxpayers are owed a median of $575, and in New York, 76,600 taxpayers are owed a median of $612.
They estimate that in my state alone (Virginia), a little over 38 thousand people are owed a sum of $37million.
Are People Too Busy To File Their Returns?
Its not just people who owe money to the government that don’t file. Some people whose incomes fall below the filing threshold, never file. According to Michelle Lamishaw, an IRS spokeswoman, many filers couldn’t be bothered to file a return.
“Maybe (the refund) didn’t seem like a lot of money to them, or it seemed like too much bother to file, or they didn’t have the right paperwork. Sometimes they may anticipate they wouldn’t get a refund, so why bother, but sometimes they’re wrong about that,” Lamishaw said.
“There are a lot of reasons why people don’t file, but it can add up to serious money for some people,” she said.
What is funny is that roughly 1/2 of all of the taxpayers would get a refund of around $500. That may not be much money to some, but it is still a pretty good chunk of change to me. It takes me about 1-2 hours to do my taxes (depending upon what I did that year).
That’s either $250/ hour or $500/hour. I would love to make that much money at my daily job. Wouldn’t you?
I Beg You - Please File Your Tax Returns
You cannot claim refunds owed to you in 2004 if you haven’t filed your 2007, 2006 or 2005 returns. One other thing. That “stimulus” check of $600 that everyone is expecting to get (but still won’t help provide much of a “stimulus”) will not come to you unless you have filed your 2007 return.
So I guess if you are really lazy, or just love taking procrastination to an absurd level then you have until April 15 of this year to file them so that you can get the money owed to you in 2004 (and also have the added benefit of being “ok” with the IRS).
Seriously - sometimes I just don’t “get” people who are too busy to “make” $500/hour.
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2 Responses to “The $1.2 Billion Question - Does The IRS Owe You Money ?”
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I owe 2g’s this year.. it’s not lazy
Well… in THAT case I can understand you not filing on time