FTB sent refund check for 2011 during audit; Does this really mean that whole audit is over for 2011?
Not it doesn't, and yes they can. If the audit is closed, you should have received invitation to attend the closing conference, and get the summary of decisions from that meeting in writing. I suggest you check with your tax representative about this refund check before cashing it.
She filed for 0 withholdings in her W4, so my (unprofessional) guess   was that she'd be owed money, and therefore the IRS wouldn't care much   if she didn't file her taxes.† Maybe, but doesn't she want that money back? Is she at as much risk as any other individual of being audited and   penalized to the same degree if she skips filing her taxes? Audited and penalized are not the same. She's at the same risk of being audited, and even slightly higher since the IRS got reports of her wages, but didn't get the matching report from her. They may want to ask why. But it doesn't mean she's going to be penalized for anything. Being audited doesn't mean you did something wrong. Or does the IRS tend to overlook such individuals. The IRS might want to overlook because they're the ones owning money. She cannot get a refund without filing a tax return. She'd file her taxes today if she could, but the worry is that time's   running out Filing an extension is free and it postpones the deadline to file till OCTOBER! Bullshit.   Those 16 Trillion dollars in secret loans weren't known until that audit which was forced on the Federal Reserve by Congress, and Congress and the American people weren't told that the Federal Reserve was making massive zero interest loans to foreign banks.  None of that would have come out unless Congress had pushed for that audit.  &gt;A prime example is his claim that 16 trillion was lent, which is pretty dishonest. At no point was there more than about 2T lent out (from the audit itself) and at no point was the US taxpayer on the hook for over around 2T.  lol..   that's some prime spin job right there.   Tell me this...   if I loan you $500 a night every night for 5 days and those loans allow you to earn $100 totally risk free how much have I loaned you?  Does it even matter, because the end of result is I essentially gave you $100. &gt;The financial press is full of articles about the massive flow of investors to Treasuries  Wow, yeah I mean if you read about it or saw it on the news, then it must be true.  But of course, if that were *really* true, then it would bring about the question... **[why the F! would the Fed have bought 61% of US Treasuries in 2011](http://www.moneynews.com/Headline/fed-debt-Treasury/2012/03/28/id/434106)???** "J Gruber's consulting reports for the various states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc).  * http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/jon-gruber-on-the-premiums-in-health-care-reform/2011/08/25/gIQAN0TUWS_blog.html  ...and the article it addresses (which included some numbers from the reports):  * http://dailycaller.com/2012/02/11/obamacare-architect-expect-steep-increase-in-health-care-premiums/  Note that Gruber has made a whole spectrum of claims (from initially claiming that premiums would go DOWN for a consulting agreement with the Obama administration, to later ""revisions"" showing significant increases {to varying degrees depending on the individuals specific demographic}), to wit:  &gt;Gruber’s new reports are in direct contrast Obama’s words — and with claims Gruber himself made in 2009. Then, the economics professor said that based on figures provided by the independent Congressional Budget Office, “[health care] reform will significantly reduce, not increase, non-group premiums.”  &gt;During his presentation to Wisconsin officials in August 2011, Gruber revealed that while about 57 percent of those who get their insurance through the individual market will benefit in one way or another from the law’s subsides, an even larger majority of the individual market will end up paying drastically more overall.  &gt;“After the application of tax subsidies, **59 percent of the individual market will experience an average premium increase of 31 percent,”** Gruber reported.  &gt;The reason for this is that an estimated 40 percent of Wisconsin residents who are covered by individual market insurance don’t meet the Affordable Care Act’s minimum coverage requirements. Under the Affordable Care Act, they will be required to purchase more expensive plans.  &gt;Asked for his own explanation for the expected health-insurance rate hikes, Gruber told TheDC that his reports “reflect the high cost of folding state high risk pools into the [federal government's] exchange — without using the money the state was already spending to subsidize those high risk pools.”  Note: Emphasis added.    Note 2: To begin with, an ""average"" increase of 31% qualifies as ""significant"" (hell, it's a lot more than merely ""significant"", that's a HUGE increase); and secondly, that is an AVERAGE, meaning that while some of the people in that ""59%"" will probably not see such a high increase, a fairly large segment {and per the provisions of the Act versus current premium calculation methods, we KNOW these will be ""young healthy singles"", and especially males} will face increases that are substantially HIGHER than 31%, and in fact will probably be in the nature of double or triple previous premiums {as would be required in order to meet another provision of the act, that highest premiums for older/sicker pool members cannot be higher than 3x that of the youngest/lowest tier premiums -- and if the company is to balance the books, it can only ""bring down"" the one end if it makes a compensating increase at the other end.})  None of that is ""rocket science"" and it is entirely predictable. (The only things that would be ""odd"" would be that anyone should expect anything different, and that Gruber's initial claims of across the board lower costs were ever accepted in the first place.)" The tax year will be determined by the date on the check from Lottery and they will withhold estimated taxes for federal, and for most state, incomes taxes.   Just remember if the ticket is claimed in January, then you will have to wait until the following year to get any possible refund. Here is an article that claims to know something about it. Here are a selection of quotes: The IRS says there are several ways a return can be selected for audit and the first is via the agency's computer-scoring system known as Discriminant Information Function, or DIF. The IRS evaluates tax returns based on IRS formulas, and DIF is based on deductions, credits and exemptions with norms for taxpayers in each of the income brackets. The actual scoring formula to determine which tax returns are most likely to be in error is a closely guarded secret. But Nath, a tax attorney in the Washington, D.C., area, says it's no mystery the system is designed to screen for returns that could put more money in the government Treasury. So what is likely to trigger a discriminant information function red flag? Your administrator will pull from last year's funds first, before automatically moving on to the new year.  The procedures are under guidelines from the IRS so it should be pretty standard. You likely only have to submit the claim once, but your administrator may have a special grace period form to fill out. If they leave the extra funds in the account the IRS will consider it as employer match. They weren't funds from your paycheck, they were from the employers profits. Because they don't have a formal matching program the extra funds will still keep then under the max match.  There is one other explanation that needs to be considered. If the last paycheck from 2011 was near the end of the year (the last Friday of 2011 was December 30th) the 401K funds from that final paycheck may not have been deposited into your 401K until early January 2012. If you count contributions when looking at your 401K statement it will look like one two many for 2012; but the IRS only cares when it was deducted from your paycheck, not when it was deposited into your account. The Department of Labor only requires they be deposited by the 15th of the following month.