Why?????

[Oxtrainer]

Thursday about 2 pm in comes a man and wants to file for 4 years, 03, 04, 05 and 06.
The 03 would have had a 3500 refund and the rest were small refunds, about enough to
cover the cost of the returns. When I told him the 2003 was beyond the time limit for
a refund he did not even seem concerned. Two years ago a man filed 4 returns and
lost about 4000 in refunds. This is beyond me and even worse not much concern about
the loss.

[DaveO]

It amazes me when people leave money on the table

I had a couple have their refund held on their 2006 return because the IRS said they hadn't received their 2001 return. They were sure they had filed it but as I reviewed the IRS account transcripts in preparing the return I could see they hadn't. They were owed a $3500 refund and had $6000 of capital loss carryforward. They were very very sad.

[erchess]

I wonder

what your particular philosophical or religious belief system is? The Christian Doctrine of Original Sin is the best explanation I have encountered of for why we all do idiotic and even evil things from time to time. We do idiotic and evil things because our minds or souls or whatever are badly corrupted at the time of birth. The reason many people learn to do some morally good and even intelligent things while never reaching perfection is that a substantial but not total repair of the corruption is possible in this life.

[erchess]

Would you rather believe your clients or the IRS?

I had a couple have their refund held on their 2006 return because the IRS said they hadn't received their 2001 return. They were sure they had filed it but as I reviewed the IRS account transcripts in preparing the return I could see they hadn't. They were owed a $3500 refund and had $6000 of capital loss carryforward. They were very very sad.

In North Carolina and I think the IRS there have been documented cases of people mailing in returns timely and staff assigned to key in the returns deliberately failing to input them. In one case several hundred returns were found hidden by ceiling tiles.

It seems to me that your clients could have filed the returns and then failed to pay attention to whether they received their refunds.

[JohnH]

That could be the reason

Or it could be that they are forgetful.

[LTS]

with respect to original sin -

what your particular philosophical or religious belief system is? The Christian Doctrine of Original Sin is the best explanation I have encountered of for why we all do idiotic and even evil things from time to time. We do idiotic and evil things because our minds or souls or whatever are badly corrupted at the time of birth. The reason many people learn to do some morally good and even intelligent things while never reaching perfection is that a substantial but not total repair of the corruption is possible in this life.

unless you think the world is 6000 years old - millions and even billions of years before the snake made me do it (or Eve or Lilith), there was the ancient accidental or recently existential explanation for evolution - very, very many possible choices and only a few or one eventual or correct outcome.

an evolved mind is capable of making better choices, although the odds are still quite long.
my minimalist philosophy is that if i don't lose them all, i'm ahead of the game.

[George Boutwell]

"Qualifying Child," for heavenly purposes

The Western tradition, both Catholic and Protestant, concerning original sin is largely based on writings by Augustine of Hippo, who famously concluded that unbaptized infants go to hell because of original sin. The Latin Church Fathers who followed Augustine adopted his position, and it became a point of reference for Latin theologians in the Middle Ages. In the later medieval period, some theologians continued to hold Augustine's view, others held that unbaptized infants suffered no pain at all: unaware of being deprived of the beatific vision, they enjoyed a state of natural, not supernatural happiness. Starting around 1300, unbaptized infants were often said to inhabit the "limbo of infants".

[Uncle Sam]

Why??????

Hold it folks. This thread is getting out of hand.
This is not a forum with which to discuss any religious or political philosophies.
Let's keep it the way it was intended to be.

[DaveO]

I would love to believe my clients

In North Carolina and I think the IRS there have been documented cases of people mailing in returns timely and staff assigned to key in the returns deliberately failing to input them. In one case several hundred returns were found hidden by ceiling tiles.

It seems to me that your clients could have filed the returns and then failed to pay attention to whether they received their refunds.

I held out hope for that very possibility. However they had 2 state returns to file and neither state had record of the return. The following year return didn't reflect the capital loss carry forward. They could find no record of a refund form the states. They didn't have any copies of returns fed or state. I can't believe they could have prepared the two state returns by hand and I don't think Turbotax supported multi state returns in 2001.

[erchess]

I'm sorry the last poster is unhappy with the

religious/philosophical direction this thread took beginning with my post. Perhaps it would be a good idea if the webmaster articulated a standard of conduct (or anyone pointed me to where it already is). Perhaps the standard should be developed out of a relevant thread.

I don't know how to answer a question about why clients or any other humans behave as they do without resorting to religious and philosophical discussion. At the same time, I can see how such discussions could quickly become unpleasant, so perhaps they are best avoided. We might even agree to post only things relevant to what we do as tax professionals: tax law and practice management. Why clients behave as they do would be off topic but what do do about common client behaviors would be on topic. Perhaps even threads about the events in our lives (illness, leaving the board, changing nic, etc) should be on a separate board at the site or should be marked in some way on the list of threads.

And again, to anyone I may have offended, I apologize.

[Joe Btfsplk]

In North Carolina and I think the IRS there have been documented cases of people mailing in returns timely and staff assigned to key in the returns deliberately failing to input them. In one case several hundred returns were found hidden by ceiling tiles.

It seems to me that your clients could have filed the returns and then failed to pay attention to whether they received their refunds.

I had a client who, at the time of the return's due date, lived in N.C. and the IRS claimed she had not filed. She ended up going to tax court several years later, but finally had to refile the return. She swore up and down that she had filed it on time.

[Joe Btfsplk]

Hold it folks. This thread is getting out of hand.
This is not a forum with which to discuss any religious or political philosophies.
Let's keep it the way it was intended to be.

Let's all vote for Mitt Romney and join Al Sharpton's church.

[veritas]

The Western tradition, both Catholic and Protestant, concerning original sin is largely based on writings by Augustine of Hippo, who famously concluded that unbaptized infants go to hell because of original sin. The Latin Church Fathers who followed Augustine adopted his position, and it became a point of reference for Latin theologians in the Middle Ages. In the later medieval period, some theologians continued to hold Augustine's view, others held that unbaptized infants suffered no pain at all: unaware of being deprived of the beatific vision, they enjoyed a state of natural, not supernatural happiness. Starting around 1300, unbaptized infants were often said to inhabit the "limbo of infants".

Recently,

The pope declared there is no"limbo".

[George Boutwell]

No, the Pope has better things to do

After three years of study, a Vatican-appointed panel of theologians has declared that limbo is a "problematic" concept that Catholics are free to reject. The 30-member International Theological Commission said there are good reasons to believe instead that unbaptized babies go to heaven, because God is merciful and "wants all human beings to be saved."

[Snaggletooth]

Entitled

I'm going to go back to the original post, where the Oxtrainer asked why someone could be so non-chalant about missing out on a large refund due to statute of limitations.

Could be the taxpayer suspected all along he was due money. But knew if he filed it would all go to delinquent child support or some other noble social cause the IRS supports. I'm not upholding deadbeat dads but the IRS picks and chooses who has access to tax refunds.

As for religious discussions? I'm all for them!!! and frankly am worn out with those who jump up and want to disallow mention of the Bible at every opportunity. However, I do agree that the board should be more on-subject focused than it is. We often migrate to a number of off-topic items, but don't seem to protest them as what has happened here. And I think we are all somewhat guilty occasionally.

I would recommend finding a relevant blog as there are thousands of people willing to discuss religion, or politics, or other items that people feel strongly about.