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RETAIL bosses may have to issue bizarre health warnings on its clothing mannequins - after a punter said he got his MANHOOD trapped in one. The man, 31, rang officials at an online firm to whinge that he got “part of himself” stuck in a 24mm hole on a female display bust. The unnamed customer from Doncaster, South Yorks, had ordered the display mannequin over the internet mistakenly thinking it was an adult sex toy. He had to use a pair of heavy duty scissors to cut the dummy and set himself free. Cheekily instead of feeling a right dummy,...

WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said Monday it will return $850,000 in donations raised by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is under federal investigation for violating election laws.

WASHINGTON (Aug. 31) - Consumers can claim a standard $30 to $60 refund next year for a tax on long-distance telephone calls that the government declared invalid, the Internal Revenue Service announced Thursday. Telephone customers had been paying the 3 percent federal excise tax on local and long-distance service. The government this month stopped collecting the tax on long-distance calls after businesses repeatedly fought the tax in court and won. Next year, consumers can use their 2006 tax returns to claim a refund on long-distance telephone taxes paid since March 2003. The standard refund starts at $30 and increases by...

Massachusetts taxpayers have just two weeks to recoup some $250 million in capital gains taxes they paid under a 2002 tax increase that was struck down by the courts, but some accountants and tax advocates say the state has not done enough to alert taxpayers to the impending deadline. About 157,000 of the state's 3.3 million tax filers qualify for a refund, which would average about $1,600. The deadline to file is June 30; the payments will be made, without interest, over a period of four years.

Taxpayers who have fallen behind on their paperwork -- way, way behind -- have a $2 billion incentive to get caught up. The IRS owes more than $2 billion to more than 1.7 million people who never filed tax returns for 2002. Half could get checks worth more than $570. To collect the refunds, taxpayers must file a 2002 tax return before this year's April 17 filing deadline. The IRS urges taxpayers to check their records and seize the opportunity to claim their money. The IRS gives people three years to claim a refund before it becomes the property of...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- A former soldier injured in Iraq is getting a refund after being forced to pay for his missing body armor vest, which medics destroyed because it was soaked with his blood, officials said Wednesday. First Lt. William "Eddie" Rebrook IV, 25, had to leave the Army with a shrapnel injury to his arm. But before he could be discharged last week, he says he had to scrounge up cash from his buddies to pay $632 for the body armor and other gear he had lost. Rebrook, who graduated from West Point with honors, said he was...

In a rare marketing ploy, the No. 2 U.S. movie theater chain, AMC Entertainment, is offering a money-back guarantee for boxing picture "Cinderella Man," hoping to boost interest in the struggling film amid a record box-office slump. Advertisements offering on-the-spot refunds to AMC patrons unhappy with the film began running June 24 in newspapers and on the exhibitor's Web site (www.amctheatres.com), AMC spokeswoman Pam Blase said Tuesday. The ads, welcomed by the film's distributor, Universal Pictures, say in part: "AMC believes Cinderella Man is one of the finest motion pictures of the year!" Blase said AMC provides occasional rebates to...

ALBANY - The state is withholding tax refunds to more than a million New Yorkers who filed early, officials said Tuesday. State Department of Taxation and Finance spokesman Thomas Bergin told the New York Post that state officials put an annual cap on refunds to be paid out before April 1. This year's cap was set at $960 million. The tax department is holding back $717 million in refunds until April 1 as New York struggles with its finances, the Post reported. The state has sent out 1.6 million refunds totaling $900 million so far this year. An estimated 1.3...

This morning, I checked my bank account online, to see exactly what my pay was this week (I'm hourly, so it varies), and to my very pleasant surprise, my refund from the Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Taxation was there as well. . .3 days after they accepted my electronically-filed return. So I **THEN** hit the IRS Website, link above, to check status on my Federal Refund. And got an interesting response: it told me to CALL the IRS, give a specific extension, and reference a certain code-number. I did so. The IRS person who eventually answered (~5 minutes on...

Recently, the PayPal site had technology issues that may have hindered your ability to conduct business using PayPal. To show our appreciation for your continued business, we're going to credit you for PayPal transaction fees incurred on October 28, 2004, between 12:00:00 AM PDT and 11:59:59 PM PDT. You don't need to do anything to receive your credit. We'll add up the transaction fees you accumulate, and send a credit to your PayPal account by November 25, 2004.

Vehicle License Fee refund checks will go out Friday, the Department of Motor Vehicles announced this morning. Over the next two months the DMV will send out refunds totaling $4.7 million to Californians who registered their cars in the summer and fall of 2003. Last summer, the state budget deficit triggered an enormously unpopular three-fold increase in the VLF. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected in October's recall election, the first thing he did when he took office was to repeal the increase. The DMV said this morning the first checks should arrive in mailboxes by early next week. The...

REFUND RECOVERY SCAM Reported and Web Produced by: John Matarese Updated: 05/19/03 09:15:21 WITH THE ECONOMY ON THE ROPES, AND JOBS HARD TO FIND, YOU MAY BE LOOKING TO MAKE A LITTLE EXTRA CASH. AND IT SEEMS A LOGICAL PLACE IS RIGHT ON YOUR HOME COMPUTER. "I am deluged, I mean deluged. To make money at home on your computer. You dont have to do anything, you sign up, they do everything for you." JAN MATTHEWS GETS E-MAILS EVERY DAY PROMISING HER RICHES IF SHE'S ONLY JOIN THE LATEST WORK AT HOME PROGRAM. SHE SAYS MANY ARE OBVIOUS SCAMS. "Hi...

<p>In the largest refund stemming from California's energy crisis, El Paso Corp. agreed Thursday to pay $1.7 billion to settle charges that it manipulated natural gas prices in 2001.</p> <p>The settlement includes $900 million in free natural gas for California over 20 years. It also includes cash to California utility ratepayers, various Southern California cities, the states of Nevada, Oregon and Washington and some private entities.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON(AP) - Reliant Energy agreed Friday to refund $13.8 million to settle claims that employees withheld power for two days to drive up prices in California, the latest evidence that energy companies manipulated the state's power supply, federal energy regulators said.</p>

The Tax System... This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws. Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this. The first four men -- the poorest -- would pay nothing; The fifth would pay $1: The sixth would pay $3; The seventh $7; The eighth $12; The ninth $18. The tenth man -- the richest -- would pay $59. That's what...

50,000 people go to a baseball game, but the game was rained out. A refund was then due. The team was about to mail refunds when the Congressional Democrats stopped them and suggested that they send out refund amounts based on the Democrat National Committee's interpretation of fairness. After all, if the refunds were made based on the price each person paid for the tickets most of the money would go to the wealthiest ticket holders. That would be unconscionable. The DNC plan says: People in the $10 seats will get back $15, because they have less money to spend....

<p>California continues to build its claim that the state was unfairly gouged by power companies last year, but consumers paying record-high electricity rates shouldn't expect to see refund checks anytime soon.</p> <p>While Gov. Gray Davis loudly maintains the state is owed $8.9 billion by the nation's generators, experts say the final tally will be nowhere near that high even if California wins its case.</p>

ST. LOUIS -- The budget deficit is huge. Tax collection has been unexpectedly skimpy. And the treasury is all but tapped out. So the state of Missouri has stopped sending out income tax refunds. And there are no plans to put the checks in the mail any time soon. Here is the balance of the article

Though we might not agree with his politics, Senator Schumer has established a list of current/former New Yorkers whom the IRS owes a refund. Unclaimed refunds are sorted alphabetically by last name and by city. Check and see if your name appears. If other Freepers are aware of a master list or lists for other states, please post here or on another thread.

Hi all. I checked my checking account and saw that I had received my refund. It was $300 less than the figure I put on my 1040 form. Is this because of the checks the government mailed out to us? Were just advances on our refunds? I think I thought they were additional refunds to LAST year's taxes. Can anyone confirm that they had this happen as well? Thank you.