And, as she needed to, she gave it back.
A house cleaner in the Denver area received a hefty refund from the IRS by mistake.
Local station CBS 4 reported that Laura Schultz, an employee of Sunshine Maids, received a refund check for $122,783.51 from the service. When she reported the error to the IRS, she was instructed to void the check.
Despite the IRS error, and her honesty in reporting the mistake, she still owes $80 on her taxes.
From today’s L.A. Times (click link for entire article):
A nationwide crackdown on federal income tax evasion using secret Swiss bank accounts yielded an agreement from a Malibu businessman to plead guilty to hiding at least $1 million abroad.
John McCarthy is the first tax dodger in California — and the fourth nationwide — to be prosecuted after Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, agreed to reveal the identities of U.S. customers.
Richard Hatch, the first-season winner of “Survivor,” has requested an early release from his in-home jail sentence for tax evasion so he can rejoin the show and win enough to pay back the IRS, but the judge said no.
Hatch, who collected the TV series’ first million-dollar prize, was convicted in January 2006 on three counts of tax evasion for failing to pay taxes on his $1 million winnings and about $400,000 in income from hosting a radio show and rental earnings. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison in July 2006.
… but the State of California is serious about collecting their due — here’s a little salacious gossip:
Rap singer and actor Snoop Dogg is facing a tax lien from the State of California, along with assault charges.
His real name, Calvin Broadus Jr., shows up on a list of California tax scofflaws, alongside the likes of Burt Reynolds, Dionne Warwick and Sinbad. The California Franchise Tax Board lists him as owing $284,053 and a tax lien has been placed on his residence, according to E! Online. He is in good company, however. Other rappers with tax troubles include Lil’ Kim, Method Man and Xzibit.
If you do business in the City of Los Angeles, and have either not filed or under-reported on your business taxes, you have until the end of July to correct the situation and avoid up to 40% penalties — More details here.
Make sure you adjust your withholding on the state level if you’re a Californian — otherwise, your withholding may not reflect changes in the law, and you could end up owing more money to the state at the end of the year. More information
The US Supreme Court made it even harder to prove age discrimination in employment cases. See More
June 2009 – The Enterprise Zone (EZ) tax incentive program was created in 1986 to help local businesses, and encourage outside businesses to locate in economically depressed areas. The federal government does not have a comparable economic development program or business tax incentives.
The FTB has a useful primer on California’s Enterprise Zones here…
According to the Wall Street Journal:
If you’ve been in the habit of shopping around for a new term-life insurance policy every few years, you may want to reconsider that strategy: After years of falling premiums, many insurers are raising prices on term policies.
Read more here…
April 15th has come and gone. Did you miss this tax deadline? You may now be faced with interest and penalties for tax due.
The failure-to-file penalty is 5 percent per month, or part of a month, of the balance due, up to a maximum of 25 percent. If the tax return is more than 60 days late, the minimum penalty is $135 or the balance due, whichever is less.
If you owe taxes on your return, it will save you money to file as soon as possible.
Please contact our office to assist you in filing your tax return.
