I've been asked to help a friend with a missing refund. This is becoming extremely fishy, and I'd appreciate comments.
B was arrested in February 2016, and I got to know her because my ex-girlfriend was arrested around the same time and they were on the same unit.
B asked for my help in getting her tax refund. She explained that:
She filed for a refund of about $5,600 but she was arrested before the refund was received. (I think she filed paper.) She's no longer with her ex-boyfriend, so mail is unreliable. There was some issue about identity fraud because at some point she mis-entered the last 4 digits of her SSN somewhere.
Taking all this at face value, I contacted IRS and B filed a case with the Taxpayer Advocate, filing for 911 for that and also another form naming me as her representative. The case was assigned and I spoke with the Taxpayer Advocate person assigned, BG.
I asked B how she got such a large refund. Of course there are lots of ways, but it seemed kinda large. She has one child, so even if she didn't take advance EITC, the maximum EITC would be around $3300. B said that she has two businesses, and I asked her if she made estimated tax payments and she sounded like she didn't know what I was talking about.
A few weeks later, B received a letter from BG asking for her W-2's or pay stubs. I called BG and BG said that if she couldn't get the forms, a letter on her employer's letterhead would do. B sent me a letter saying "Apparently they don't understand that I'm in jail, these forms were in a storage locker that I stopped paying the rent on and they closed it and sold the contents for storage charges."
BG told me that she couldn't give me any more detailed information without a power of attorney. Form 2848, the POA form, requires that you fit one of certain professional requirements or be an immediate relative, none of which qualifications I fit. (Actuaries are allowed, and I am one, but not the right kind of actuary.)
I don't feel I have any actual exposure here, as I'm just a friend, and I've never made any representations to the IRS on the substance of the return. But even ignoring the fact that B is a convicted criminal (she's in jail on current charges but has prior felony convictions), the pieces just don't add up. Each piece is possible (big refund, forms lost in a storage locker), but add it all up and it's pretty unlikely.
When I think of a refund that size, I mostly think of someone who was making a lot of money and became unemployed and therefore ended the year in a lower tax bracket, someone who made a lot of money at multiple jobs and had excess FICA, or someone who messed up their estimated tax payments in some way. A recharacterized Roth conversion could do it too.
Does anyone see reasons why this isn't as fishy as I think?