Tax Refunds

About 1.7 million people are missing out on more than $2 billion in refunds for taxes they paid three years ago, the Internal Revenue Service said Tuesday. Many of them just never filed returns. It's not too late -- but the window to claim the money closes in nine weeks. "As soon as you send us your tax return, you'll get your money," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said Tuesday. "But if you don't file, you won't get anything."

Three Californians have been sentenced to federal prison terms in connection with illegal tax refund schemes, the U.S. attorney's office in Fresno said Monday. Jose Jiminez, 39, of Porterville, was sentenced to 18 months in custody with three years of supervised release in connection with a scheme to use Mexican voter registration cards to obtain tax identification numbers from the Internal Revenue Service. He was ordered to pay $31,013.50 in restitution to the IRS.

The county's impending emergence from bankruptcy promises to bring thousands of property owners a modest but long-awaited windfall. Property tax appeals, some filed as far back as four years ago, resulted in rulings that Orange County owed certain property owners more than $100 million in refunds, because their parcels had been assessed too high a value.

Far fewer property owners than originally believed might be due tax refunds because the county failed to hear their assessment appeals before the legal deadline, county officials said Monday. Working through the weekend, officials found that at least 150 of the 300 parcels believed to be past or near deadline were not acted upon because the property owners withdrew their appeal requests. Investigators were still reviewing the remaining 150 cases late Monday. "I'm somewhat relieved.

Now here's an offer you can refuse. H & R Block Inc., the ubiquitous tax preparers, say they're unhappy with President Bush's plan to reduce federal withholding to give Americans more money during the year and less in tax refunds. "We deal with more than 17 million taxpayers and we think we have a good idea of how they feel," said Thomas M. Bloch, president of the Kansas City, Mo., tax filing firm. "Most of our customers, who represent most of middle America, want a refund."

If you haven't received your tax refund yet and are worried that it may be overdue or lost, tracking it down can be as easy as a phone call. Refund snafus are fairly common, with thousands of lost or delayed cases in Southern California each year, the Internal Revenue Service reports.

A lot of taxpayers--who have just received their W-2 records of wages and withholding from employers--are in for distressing news as they fill out their tax returns between now and April 15. This year, experts say, many people are likely to find themselves coming up short and paying more to the IRS instead of receiving a refund. How can that be, when tax rates have been reduced by the Tax Reform Act of 1986?

Battered by storms, starved for jobs and slowed by doubts about White House policies, the U.S. economic recovery is smacking into yet another obstacle: Many households, denied the usual windfall of a tax refund, are pulling back their spending. "From clothing to appliances to automobiles to household furnishings," retailers will feel the pinch, predicts Mark M. Zandi, an economist with Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa.

Two Los Angeles men were arrested Friday on charges of mail fraud after they obtained a check made out to Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, federal authorities said. Kenneth Reeves, 41, of Canoga Park and Dwayne Kellum, 37, of Long Beach opened an account with Buss' stolen tax refund check for more than $161,000, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Kellum opened the account at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter by claiming to be Buss' son, officials said.

A ballot measure asking state voters to give up more than $3 billion in taxpayer refunds to stave off drastic cuts in spending on college education and healthcare for the poor was narrowly approved, officials said. Referendum C would let the state keep an estimated $3.7 billion over five years that would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, the constitutional amendment generally considered the nation's strictest cap on government spending.