I first had to get the IRS to recognize me as POA. I did that online with IRS helping me to do it by Fax. IRS person said that he would have the garnishment removed since he could tell by my answers that it was fraud since he could tell the person who did it claimed "married filing jointly" and my father died in 1997. I was also informed that he saw on my Mom's file that taxes were not file for 2013 when I had cashed in an annuity for $26,000. When added to moms SS check her total income for 2013 was $43,000. I was told when I went to the senior center for help with filing, the volunteer there talked with the IRS person and told me that she did not have to file due to her high expenses of about $30,200 medical, when I include Alzheimer's care home, drugs and medical co- pay and property taxes on her home. Does my mother owe income taxes? They told me to file 2013 taxes by Oct. 21. Again this year I went to the senior center to check if she had to file because I cashed in her last annuity last year but that amount was $46,000, so when added to her SS of $17,000 minus $39,000 for medical and property taxes, they told me I did not have to file............any advice?
My advice would be to not go to the senior center for advice but get advice from someone skilled and qualified in preparing personal income tax returns.
AARP has volunteers who do this; I don't know how well they're trained though. I would also get these kinds of opinions in writing by e-mailing IRS rather than discussing the issue with someone, and having no documentation on IRS' position.
The calculations aren't straight forward; you can't take the entire amount of the medical costs, so the 1040 really needs to be filled out to determine what the liability is.
Are you not comfortable preparing your mother's taxes yourself?
I'm sorry to learn though that fraud was involved in one of the returns. Is the IRS investigating in an attempt to identify the fraudster? Was this for any of the returns that you discussed at the senior center? Have you also put either a fraud alert or security freeze on your mother's credit files with the 3 credit reporting agencies?
It wouldn't hurt to notify your mother's bank as well as her creditors, such as the ALZ care home, of the fraud.
I'm just mentioning it although I wouldn't use it myself as I've done returns for years and e-mail IRS if I have questions, but I know that some people rely on Turbo-Tax. It's set up as a database, asking what apparently are standardized questions for supposedly every aspect of filing a 1040. So you're essentially prompted to answer specific questions as you prepare the form on a computer.
However, I don't know how much it would go into the specific issues that you have.
I hope you get some more responses to your question. One of the posters here used to work for the IRS, so she might have some good insight into the specific issue.
1-877-777-4778. More info at: http://www.irs.gov/Advocate/Local-Taxpayer-Advocate.
Your dealing with prior years, non-reporting of 1099 income for those years, all sorts of sch A items....really you are going to have to get a tax pro to get the priors done and this years. What I'd suggest is to contact one of the H&R Block year round offices ( the ones who are permanent & staffed daily) to get one them to do this and soon. A lot of these have retired enrolled agents. The one I use was a forensic accountant at a law firm before Block. Doing the past years now & before tax season enables them to take a bit more time. I bet they can go over all with you (& hubs) so that you all can do moms 2015 taxes next February on your own. What is nice abt these is that all the forms have a set price to do so the costs are reasonable & you can opt to get the " peace of mind" done so if there are any IRS letters afterwards they take care of it at no extra charge.
You kinda do need to take care of this as the IRS can garnish SS income if IRS determines there are taxes due. These are super sticky to deal with. I bet this is a concern of hubs & why he won't do it.
I really hope that the IRS catches the people! I believe that it will come out that it was the people at the address on the 1099 that I saw but was not suppose to see. I don't think that this couple just happened to pay off their $19000 tax lean that was no longer posted against them just 3 months later when I check "court cases public records" in my state last fall! Thank you for your advice!