Question about a tax return

[LennG]

Just got a call from a friend and he asked me a question about this past year's tax returns. Seems he forgot to include a small pension that his wife received, under income, and he was wondering what to do now--file an amended return, let it go since it was never picked up by the IRS, or what? He said he received a lot more in a refund than he thought he would because that is probably the reason, so if he files an amended return does he have to return all or part of the money?
He always uses one of those online places where you enter the info and they do the figuring and e-file it for you. He said he went back about 5 years and always included that pension previously but, for some reason, this year it wasn't included so what should he do now?

Personally, I have no idea so I would hope some one here might have some experience in a matter like this?

[Sem]

I'm not a CPA or even close. But if that happened to me I'd either get in touch with the IRS directly, or at the very least a Tax expert and explain what happened. It's likely they'll have to file an amended return, and quite possibly pay a late fee or penalty. The last thing I would ever consider doing is to pretend to "forget about it."

[DaveBrown74]

I'm not a CPA or even close. But if that happened to me I'd either get in touch with the IRS directly, or at the very least a Tax expert and explain what happened. It's likely they'll have to file an amended return, and quite possibly pay a late fee or penalty. The last thing I would ever consider doing is to pretend to "forget about it."

Fully agree with this. I would tell them to go to a qualified tax accountant and ask what to do. I wouldn't get too worried - worst case scenario assuming they don't sit on it is you'll pay some sort of fine that probably won't be anything terrible -- but absolutely the friend needs to deal with it. Just "letting it go" is not an option. That's playing with fire, especially with the IRS being ramped up and them really looking to crack down on people.

[LennG]

 I kind of thought that myself. Thanks for the input