V
Veritatum17
Guest
I read a story today about a woman who transposed two of her accounts numbers on her income tax form. Her $6,000 return was sent to someone else at her bank. The IRS says its a bank issue, and the bank says they can't force the wrongful recipient to return funds.
I don't need to say how dumb it is to not triple-check every single mark made on a tax return. Still, is there any liability on the part of financial institution to rectify customer error when customers notify the bank?
Since the recipients were notified - and have refused to return funds - is this theft?
Is this an IRS issue because the IRS no longer verifies account holder names?
Is there any way for civil charges to be brought when privacy is such a compelling issue here? Besides, shouldn't the recipient's account numbers be changed anyway - since someone else now knows an active account number?
Link:
http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/05/12/news/sj2tn20080510-0511stc-pokin0.ii1.txt
I don't need to say how dumb it is to not triple-check every single mark made on a tax return. Still, is there any liability on the part of financial institution to rectify customer error when customers notify the bank?
Since the recipients were notified - and have refused to return funds - is this theft?
Is this an IRS issue because the IRS no longer verifies account holder names?
Is there any way for civil charges to be brought when privacy is such a compelling issue here? Besides, shouldn't the recipient's account numbers be changed anyway - since someone else now knows an active account number?
Link:
http://stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/05/12/news/sj2tn20080510-0511stc-pokin0.ii1.txt