IRS says erroneously delayed 27,500 tax refunds February 18, 2000, 1:59 PM

CINCINNATI (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service says it erroneously delayed sending out 27,500 tax refunds but has fixed the glitch and expects to issue them by the end of next week.

The problem involved both electronically filed tax returns and the traditional paper variety, said Carolee Pfefferman, a spokeswoman for the IRS district office in Cincinnati. The office serves Michigan.

"Due to a processing problem of some type, these refunds were erroneously frozen," she said Friday.

Pfefferman said she did not have information about the total amount of the delayed refunds, or about how long they had been held up. The agency had informed some tax preparers of the problem, she said.

The IRS sometimes delays issuing a refund while the agency determines whether the intended recipient still owes prior debts, such as unpaid taxes or child support. But in this case, the 27,500 refunds were mistakenly frozen, Pfefferman said.

The problem occurred nationally, not just in the Cincinnati district, she said.

By the end of last week, the IRS had issued 16.5 million refunds. The average amount of the refunds was $1,963. Of those, more than 11 million were directly deposited by the IRS into taxpayers' bank accounts.

The direct deposits get refunds to taxpayers more quickly and save the government the time and expense of cutting and mailing checks, Pfefferman said.

http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw6695_20000218.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 18, 2000

Answers

The IRS changed the total wages on my sons tax forms. He and his wife had five W-2's. He was a truck driver, but had worked two other jobs. The lady who prepared his 1040 added the wages( except wages for truck driving for he and his wife and entered them on line 7 (total $6000.00). She filed schedule C for the wages from truck driving, ($16000.00) deducted his expenses($2800.00) and entered the wages on line 12. He and his wife's total wages for the year was $19000.00. The IRS added all the W-2's ,including wages from truck driving, then added the amount from schedule C to the total. Thus making their total wages for the year $35000.00. This also made them not qualify for the earned income credit for their daugher. Now the IRS is telling him he is not getting a refund ($3800.00) but he owes more taxes.

-- lorene ponder (orlor314@aol.com), June 15, 2002.