[Page A1.] I.R.S. Overstated Fraud Cases Among Poor Taxpayers Tax refunds sought by 1.6 million poor Americans over the last five years were frozen and their returns labeled fraudulent, although the vast majority appear to have done nothing wrong, the Internal Revenue Service's taxpayer advocate told Congress.
The refunds sought on the returns added up to more than $1.3 billion, an increase of $300 million since 2012.
And passage through this toll booth costs nearly twice as much as the product for which a refund is sought.
But after learning the "marriage penalty tax" would cost them $4,635, they filed a refund-seeking amended return, and then a lawsuit, calling their union "symbolic" and invalid under Fiji and New Jersey law.
A few have filed lawsuits seeking refunds.
Among large energy companies, the states are seeking refunds from the Mirant Corporation, Reliant Resources Inc., Dynegy Inc., Duke Energy and Enron.
"Face it — no construction site is pretty," Mr. Dana said.Then came Strike 3: a suit brought by the buyers of 78 units seeking refunds of their deposits.
Asked about donors' now seeking refunds, Mr. Levy's spokesman, Josh Hills, said, "It's not something we've been concerned about, because there have been so few requests".
No business wants to compete with its own garbage, or risk having people show up at a store seeking refunds on clothes that were never sold.
But he was doing so behind locked doors — separated, he said, from ticketholders who might be seeking refunds, for which there was presently no money.
A spokesman for Mr. Levy said that the campaign had received very few calls from donors seeking refunds, and that it would evaluate the requests individually.
