https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov I can't tell if this is trying to seem fake.
Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
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Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#32> For COVID-19, a federal disaster declaration was in effect from January 20, 2020, through May 11, 2023. [...] As noted, tens of millions of taxpayers have been assessed penalties or interest for late filings or payments during these years. I'm a little surprised that many people are late with their tax filings.
It’s not late filings as much as late payments (late quarterly estimated taxes, under-withholding beyond safe harbor rules, etc.) Lots of people who are self-employed or who make a high W-2 income and receive irregular payments/gains (bonuses, RSU vests, capital gains) fall into this category. Late filings are almost trivial to avoid; late payments are significantly harder to entirely avoid as, depending on your tax…
I suppose. I've had years in the past where I had sporadic self-employment income, and I filed estimated payments only for the quarters where I had income, maybe even was late or combined a couple of quarters every now and then. I never got penalized as long as the amount I owed for the year had been paid by April 15. Maybe I was a small enough fish that they just didn't care.
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not late filings as much as late payments (late quarterly estimated taxes, under-withholding beyond safe harbor rules, etc.) Lots of people who are self-employed or who make a high W-2 income and receive irregular payments/gains (bonuses, RSU vests, capital gains) fall into this category. Late filings are almost trivial to avoid; late payments are significantly harder to entirely avoid as, depending on your tax…
I suppose. I've had years in the past where I had sporadic self-employment income, and I filed estimated payments only for the quarters where I had income, maybe even was late or combined a couple of quarters every now and then. I never got penalized as long as the amount I owed for the year had been paid by April 15. Maybe I was a small enough fish that they just didn't care.
Most likely you met one of the safe harbor tests.
The dunning for getting this wrong is automated, so if you didn’t do it right and didn’t pass a safe harbor, they’d have sent you a notice.
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compare this site to the base domain. https://www.irs.gov/ Do you think it looks official? Or does it look like someone spent $10 on a 3rd world rando to make a site on Wordpress and a spoofed URL and didn't even bother to make it part of the official site.
> Do you think it looks official? I check the address bar for that.
You mean the thing that has been the source of many cybersecurity issues for years because fonts w/ ambiguous characters and varying levels of "how closely are you actually reading the URL"?
The very thing where sites like gmai1.com that look exactly like the real site phish creds?
Or things that even Google has issues with subdomains?
https://hoxhunt.com/blog/advanced-phishing-attack-using-goog...
The IRS site does use lots of subdomains like https://sa.www4.irs.gov, but even it looks like its using the same design language as the normal site.
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#35This site is legit. It looks off because DOGE fired a lot of people last year and mandated the use of AI for public facing content like this so it's the equivalent of something a first week intern would draft before they got taught basic professionalism.
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#36https://www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov I can't tell if this is trying to seem fake.
> An official website of the U.S. Gov
Looks as legit as the email I got from the official office of The Prince of Nigeria.
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#37I'll save everybody else 120s: if you didn't get penalized for filing your taxes late during covid, move on.
It seems to also argue that we all have claims for lost interest on what we paid to the IRS during the period in question, but that's a stretch. I am getting Wesley Snipes tax advisor vibes here and will move along.
It argues no such thing. Of the 20 instances of the word "interest", 19 are obviously referring to the interest that the IRS will charge you on your balance if you don't pay your taxes by the due date. The one remaining one is this:
> Overpayment interest for the 2020–2023 disaster period.
and refers to the interest that the IRS will pay you if they owe you money (a refund) that they don't manage to return to you in a timely manner.
(All of this is explained on the main IRS website: https://www.irs.gov/payments/interest)
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Do you think it looks official? I check the address bar for that.
You mean the thing that has been the source of many cybersecurity issues for years because fonts w/ ambiguous characters and varying levels of "how closely are you actually reading the URL"? The very thing where sites like gmai1.com that look exactly like the real site phish creds? Or things that even Google has issues with subdomains? https://hoxhunt.com/blog/advanced-phishing-attack-using-goog... The IRS site does…
> You mean the thing that has been the source of many cybersecurity issues for years because fonts w/ ambiguous characters and varying levels of "how closely are you actually reading the URL"?
The very thing where sites like gmai1.com that look exactly like the real site phish creds?
Yes, that’s the one.
If I’m really paranoid, I’ll:
1.) avoid providing data to that page
2.) cross-reference host IP
3.) find the page on the original URL via search index
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#39I'll save everybody else 120s: if you didn't get penalized for filing your taxes late during covid, move on.
It's not just if you filed late. It also says payments "due any time within that window were not late until after July 10, 2023." So for example, if you were a contractor who paid your taxes on April 15 (rather than making quarterly payments).
true enough.
Re: Taxpayers May Be Eligible for Significant Tax Refunds – If They Act by July 10
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems to also argue that we all have claims for lost interest on what we paid to the IRS during the period in question, but that's a stretch. I am getting Wesley Snipes tax advisor vibes here and will move along.
It argues no such thing. Of the 20 instances of the word "interest", 19 are obviously referring to the interest that the IRS will charge you on your balance if you don't pay your taxes by the due date. The one remaining one is this: > Overpayment interest for the 2020–2023 disaster period. and refers to the interest that the IRS will pay you if they owe you money (a refund) that they don't manage to return to you in…
It mentions "Overpayment interest for the 2020–2023 disaster period" which I figured could be applied broadly, but I guess that was more my interpretation rather than the intention.