Austin Lewis
Managing Editor

This week we return to Florida (yes, we were just there last month) to the story of Tampa resident Ramon Blanchett, who received a refund of $980,000 after filing his taxes in 2017. The problem? His reported income was only $18,497.¹

The self-described freelancer had two W-2s during the tax year, one from a nursing home and the other from a restaurant. One of the forms incorrectly listed his withholding as $1 million, which led to the refund check from the IRS.

The bank where Blanchett deposited the money suspected fraud and eventually closed his accounts. He went to a credit union next, depositing the money into multiple accounts while "falsely representing that the funds were from the estate of his deceased father," according to a federal complaint.

Everyone grieves differently, apparently, and Blanchett went out and bought a 2016 Lexus RC350 for $49,117.

Blanchett has not been charged with a federal crime, but a seizure warrant allowed the IRS to take the car and the more than $900,000 that was left in his accounts. And the IRS is now going after the $809 refund Progressive Insurance sent to Blanchett because he no longer has the car. So much for driving off into the sunset.

Kathryn Zdan, EA
Editorial Director

The internet is a wealth of information, like this list of the worst ways clients have presented their documents to tax preparers:

1. A client gave us their documents in a nice three-ring binder, with each page in its individual page protector. I have to take each page out, one by one, to scan then put it back in.
2. A client stapled every single document she had to another document, resulting in about 60 pages all stapled individually to one other single document = 60+ staples.
3. A client scanned each of her documents to us as individual .jpg files, including each page of her combined brokerage statement. Half of them are corrupt and don't open.
4. A farmer brought in a shoe box and a 2'x3' plastic tub, both full of receipts. No explanation, no separation. After going through them for hours, over half of them were fast food receipts.
5. I just finished a client who kept receipts for everything they spent money on all year. It was reasonably organized by category, but no summaries or totals. 200+ pages of medical expenses, which after I added up, did not make it above the 10% threshold.
6. An online client didn't understand they needed to upload their W-2s to me; they wanted to read them over the phone.

The full thread is at:

www.reddit.com/r/taxpros/comments/86tq1q/unique_ways_clients_sort_tax_documents/

If you can add to this list, e-mail us at tribune@spidell.com, or reply to the Tribune e-mail.