Any danger in amending old returns?

#3 04-07-2005, 06:17 AM

toller wrote:

- quote -

> Doing this year's returns (Federal and NYS) I realized I
> forgot to include deduction in last year's return. Since it
> is on TaxCut it was easy enough to redo. I am owed $250
> federal and $150 state back.
> While I certainly would like an extra $400, it is a bad deal
> if I am going to radically increase my chance of an audit.
> I didn't do anything wrong that I know of, but the hassle of
> an audit can't be worth $400. What do you think?

Amend and get your refund.

--
Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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#2 04-07-2005, 06:17 AM

"toller" wrote:

- quote -

> ...I am owed $250
> federal and $150 state back.
> While I certainly would like an extra $400, it is a bad deal
> if I am going to radically increase my chance of an audit.
> I didn't do anything wrong that I know of, but the hassle of
> an audit can't be worth $400. What do you think?

Few states audit returns, and for federal, $250 is small.
So it's not audited unless IRS can't pay the claim because
on the surface statute doesn't appear to allow it. Beyond
that, the return would not be audited unless something on
the original return really stood out as questionable. IRS
manages its audit selection programs according to historical
productivity. Amended returns are essentially random, and
IRS well knows that random selections are generally
unproductive.

Fred F.

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#1 04-07-2005, 05:58 AM

If they audited everyone that amended a tax form they could
not have time to do any thing else. I have amended for a
lot of people (new to me) and not a one of them has ever
been audited.

Missy Doyle

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04-06-2005, 03:37 PM

"toller" <toller[at]yahoo.com> wrote

- quote -

> Doing this year's returns (Federal and NYS) I realized I
> forgot to include deduction in last year's return. Since it
> is on TaxCut it was easy enough to redo. I am owed $250
> federal and $150 state back.
> While I certainly would like an extra $400, it is a bad deal
> if I am going to radically increase my chance of an audit.
> I didn't do anything wrong that I know of, but the hassle of
> an audit can't be worth $400. What do you think?

The only reason they would audit you simply because of an
amended return, is if there were something that you amend
that is questionable in light of the whole return. The
dollars you mention don't seem to raise any suspicions.

--
Paul A. Thomas, CPA
Athens, Georgia
taxman at negia.net

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

#-1 04-05-2005, 09:12 AM

Doing this year's returns (Federal and NYS) I realized I
forgot to include deduction in last year's return. Since it
is on TaxCut it was easy enough to redo. I am owed $250
federal and $150 state back.

While I certainly would like an extra $400, it is a bad deal
if I am going to radically increase my chance of an audit.
I didn't do anything wrong that I know of, but the hassle of
an audit can't be worth $400. What do you think?

<< -------------------------------------------------> << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org > << ------------------------------------------------->

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