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name on refund check

A 20-year-old college student paper-filed his 2006 1040 tax return with his correct legal name, "JOHN Q. DOE." The refund check has arrived in the mail for the correct amount, but the check is made out to "JOHN Q DOE MINOR." His previous year's refund check was just made out to JOHN Q DOE. He and his are all puzzled about why the IRS would append "MINOR" at the end of the check this year. Is this a standard new practice. He was 20 years old at the time he filed his return in early April and turned 21 before the date on the IRS check. He did not claim a personal exemption for himself, because his parents can claim him, since he is a full-time college student and they provide over half his support. Does this make him a legal minor in the eyes of the IRS? Should he attempt to get the IRS to cut a replacement check with his name without the word MINOR appended? Will there be problems if he attempts to deposit this check in his bank account, which is, of course, registered under his legal name of "JOHN Q. DOE," with no MINOR on the end.

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Reply to
mathcircle
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snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com posted:

I doubt it. Most states retain the right to determine the age of majority ... and most have tied it to the voting age of 18 (though a few still retain the traditional 21).

No, definitely not.

You have a quaint view of the deposit-checking process. There may have been a day when _people_ were expected to eyeball signatures on the back of a check presented for deposit ... but that has long gone. The current practice is, that any bank will accept the notation, "For Deposit to Credit of John Q. Doe" and the account number involved, and whisk it into the system (even without a signature). [Wags have reportedly even signed "Mickey Mouse" on checks and had no problem. This is _not_ recommended, but exemplifies the low level of concern for such niceties.] Bill

Reply to
Bill

Banks are specifically allowed to do that under the Uniform Commercial Code.

Technically when someone does that he is adopting "Mickey Mouse" as his signature for that instance, and legally has all the obligations of an endorser. Reminds me of a guy I knew who used to write his tax checks to the Infernal Revenue Service. The IRS and their bank accepted every one of them without trouble. Stu

Reply to
Stuart A. Bronstein

With my handwriting I'm sure they couldn't tell the difference anyway. But under current law, would that be subject to a "frivolous filing" penalty? Seth

Reply to
Seth

Processing as many as 800 checks an hour the transcriber has little time to discern the nuances of the diverse script & penmanship

Reply to
Taxmanhog

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