Taxation & Estate Planning

More IRS News

By Darrin Mish

Even Jail Can?t Stop IRS Scammers

Nearly 20 inmates in the Duval County jail have been making false tax returns and claiming thousands of dollars in tax refunds and having the IRS checks deposited into their jail accounts.

According to the Jacksonville Sheriff?s Office about $100,000 in fraudulent refunds have been collected. The Sheriff?s office first noticed something amiss when there was an unusually high number of tax returns and tax refund checks received. The inmates received between $1,000 and $5,000 after they filled out fake W-2 Forms of companies that have closed down or never existed. This prompted the IRS to issue a check and send it to the jail to be deposited into the inmate?s account.

Another dead giveaway is an inmate who has been in jail for more than a year, not worked any job but receiving a refund check.

This same scam happened in South Florida where prison officials reported finding tax forms, stolen Social Security numbers and cheat sheets for filling out returns. Authorities also have tape recorded telephone conversations of inmates discussing the scam over the line. One inmate was heard to have said he?s done with street crimes because ?Uncle Sam is taking good care of him?.

Many in Missouri and Kansas Await Tax Refunds

In Missouri, more than 1,200 taxpayers are still waiting for their refund checks while in Kansas the number stands at 700. According to the IRS, this is mostly due to mailing address errors.

In the Kansas City area, more than 552 refund checks were returned by the Postal Service to the IRS due to mailing address problems. In Missouri, the amount of refunds totaled $1.28 million or an average of $995. In Kansas, the total is $691,000 or an average of $1,015.

If you think you may be on the IRS Refund List, check it out at http://www.irs.gov and click on Where Is My Refund? Alternatively, you can also call the IRS Refund Hotline at 1-800-829-1954.

If you have changed mailing address, you need to fill up Form 8822 to give notice of this to the IRS. You can download the form from the IRS website or call 1-800-829-3676.

Throughout the nation, about 112,000 taxpayers have yet to receive their refund checks totaling $1.65 million. Some may be in the Duval County jail, perhaps?

More IRS News is a post from: IRS Tax Problem Solver Blog - IRS Help

Full post as published by IRS Problem Solver Blog on November 19, 2010 (boomark / email).