Recently there has been a nasty rumor being passed around that the IRS is delaying much needed refunds due to previous filings being incorrect, and thereby, the IRS would be checking all 2008 refund applications by hand...THIS IS A HOAX PERPETRATED BY THE BANKS OFFERING RAC's AND RAL's.
The reason is simple, the banks currently offering RAC'S, Refund Anticipation Checks and RAL'S, Refund Anticipation Loans has more to do with the relative insolvency such banks as Chase, Republic, SBBT and River City Banks are faced with in this current economic downturn, and due to their very delicate position, these banks do not wish to expose themselves to any further fiscal risks associated with loans and credits.
A quick look into the varied and expansive posts/blogs purporting this hoax found that the actual banks themselves, acting in a collective and collaborative manner to help foster a barrier to, for and against any potential and related losses as a result of RAC's and RAL's made in the 2008 tax year, have stooped to posting this lie, as we made contact with the US Treasury Department to further investigate and was told, "We have no knowledge of this and would say that it is just idle gossip, as ALL returns not flagged for review by the Internal Revenue Service, either for purpose of audit or other federal obligations outstanding would be delivered according to its schedule that can be found at, http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p2043.pdf, and for any other news releases, please refer to http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/index.html?portlet=5".
For tax preparers not sure of the numbers to plug into this years filings, they can go to https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof/IRServlet?ap...lectLanguage=en and find out EXACTLY HOW MUCH the tax payer received in the way of stimulus for 2007 and received in 2008.
However, IF THE TAX PREPARER DOES NOT refer to the IRS webpage https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof/IRServlet?ap...lectLanguage=en, and does not enter the exact and matched amount displaced from this very simple inquiry, then indeed it will cause a delay in the taxpayers return.
Either the tax preparer or taxpayer can verify that the IRS has accepted and processed the tax return by going to https://sa1.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp and can see and confirm the status of the filing and related refunds.
If you need more information or assistance, feel free to email at,
[email protected]
