Imagine This: Irs Program Discourages Unneeded Returns

The Internal Revenue Service encouraging people to stop filing tax returns? Hard to believe, but in an effort to make life easier for taxpayers, the IRS has gotten hundreds of thousands of people who file tax returns - but don’t need to - to stop.

Unnecessary returns cost time and money for both taxpayers and the IRS.

Under its “Reduce Unnecessary Filings” program, the IRS analyzes returns to find people who file needlessly and sends letters explaining that they don’t have to file unless they meet certain income levels.

The IRS first tested the program in Philadelphia in 1992, mailing 11,000 letters to people whose tax returns for the prior two years indicated they didn’t need to file. Seventy- two percent of those who received the letters didn’t file tax returns that year.

In 1993, when the program went nationwide, more than one million taxpayers received the notices, and nearly half of those taxpayers didn’t file that year. In 1994, the number not filing rose to about 750,000 and may reach nearly 1 million this year.