Are you required to file your taxes if you are owed a refund?
I make over the minimum requirement; and “payed as I went” for 2005. I’m pretty sure there’s no penalty for filing late when you are owed a refund, but how long can I wait? I’d rather just not file it.
I checked the irs.gov website, but it would take less time to file my taxes then find the answer to my question…
My understanding is that you’re required to file if your income for the year is over a certain amount, regardless of whether you owe more tax or have a refund coming. However, penalties and interest for filing late are usually tied to the amount of additional tax owed, so there may not be a de facto consequence for not filing if you have a refund coming. Of course, you need to file in order to actually get the refund.
Cecil has a column on this but IRS penalties are based on what you owe and failed to pay. There aren’t any routine penalties if they owe you money and you skip a year or two. Lots of people have done it including me (for one year when I was younger). When I finally got up the motivation many months after the deadline, I filled out the return and they sent me a refund without a word. However, I could see getting into trouble if you never file a return over several years even though you think you have a refund through.
Not to dispute you, but for the record, this page is exactly 2 clicks deep from irs.gov:
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96623,00.html
(clicked on “Individuals” then on “Do You Need to File a Federal Income Tax Return?”)
Thanks, the link asked me a series of questions and spit out this answer:
*
You need to file a Federal Income Tax return. Even if you do not have to file a return, you should file one to get a refund of any Federal Income Tax withheld.*
I understand the first sentence, but the second sentence leads me to believe that there may be exceptions to it.
Ah, the IRS. The first sentence gives assurance, the second gives doubt. Since the gist of both sentences is, “File,” that’s what I’d do.
Why don’t you want your money?
We have filed late because we were missing forms/moving and otherwise busy, but I want my money, so I make sure I take care of it!
Well, I make sure my husband takes care of it… 
I didn’t want the money, for many years.
Didn’t file. I was owed money every year. Didn’t want to tell the government anything about me. Then some diligent agent at the Virginia Department of Revenue caught me red handed. So, I filed for years and years, and they sent me the money they owed me. Same with the feds, although they never did find me, I just went ahead and filed so I could find out “the amount in line whatever on your federal form whatever” for the state form.
Technically, it is a federal misdemeanor to fail to file if you earned more than a certain amount. You can file if you made less than that, and whatever you had withheld will be refunded to you. If you don’t, they don’t. That is not against the law, in any way.
If you owe, or ever owed, you have committed a separate misdemeanor, and if the amount is high enough, a federal felony, for not paying what was due. Then you have a new misdemeanor, or felony for each year you don’t pay, and you must pay the penalties, and all interest. When they pay you for what you never were paid for all those years, they don’t pay any interest.
By the way, felonies or not, if you just send them the money, they pretty much always go away. Tax evasion cases where you have paid the money are very hard to prosecute.
Tris
From this thread.
In that thread it sounds like hajario had a similar experience.
Mini-rant: What is up with the IRS going after non-filing, poor, students?
I don’t know what you are confused about.
If you earn more than a certain amount, you have to file. If you earn less than that, you don’t have to file. It is quite possible that you don’t have to file, but your employer did withhold some of your pay for taxes. Even if you do not have to file a return, you won’t get that money back unless you ask for it, by filing a return.
Some people might have this question: “The IRS knows how much I earned, and how much was withheld, so why can’t they see that I don’t owe them anything, and they’ll just send me the refund automatically?” There are a lot of answers to this question, and I think that two of the simplest might be: “The law doesn’t require them to, so why should they bother.” and “Even if they wanted to, they can’t, because they don’t know how many deductions and exemptions and other stuff you qualify for.”
The motivations for this question are a little suspect. It translates to: “The IRS technically owes me money, do I have to file a return if I don’t want it?” We already answered the required part but why don’t you want your money? If there are any shady dealings going on, not filing at all isn’t going to make those more kosher. I would guess that the OP could just file a 1040-EZ which is named that way for a reason and would take half an hour tops to get the supposed refund. :dubious:
This question is more about my curiosity. We’re talking $44 and no, I don’t care to get it.
Really, the IRS isn’t that motivated for me to file b/c they owe me money and would rather not pay. Hence, penalties if you owe, and “pay when you feel like it” attitude if they owe you. I was just curious to know if I had to ever file; I know I do, technically, but how late can I be.
I have it on good word that it can be 2 or 3 years without a problem but the better question is how do you know exactly how much they owe you unless you have already been through 90% of the tax return process already?
I filed the wrong year. 2005 info for 2006 taxes. That’s another thread though, I was really just curious about having to file when owed money…