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Clarabella Doom
A brief historical overview: The printing press was the big innovation in communications until the telegraph was developed. Printing remained the key format for mass messages for years afterward, but the telegraph allowed instant communication over vast distances for the first time in human history. Telegraph usage faded as radio became easy to use and popularized; as radio was being developed, the telephone quickly became the fastest way to communicate person-to-person; after television was perfected and content for it was well developed, it became the dominant form of mass-communication technology; the internet came next, and newspapers, radio, telephones, and television are being rolled into this far-reaching information medium.
As with many innovations, the idea for the telephone came along far sooner than it was brought to reality. While Italian innovator Antonio Meucci (pictured at left) is credited with inventing the first basic phone in 1849, and Frenchman Charles Bourseul devised a phone in 1854, Alexander Graham Bell won the first U.S. patent for the device in 1876. Bell began his research in 1874 and had financial backers who gave him the best business plan for bringing it to market.
In 1877-78, the first telephone line was constructed, the first switchboard was created and the first telephone exchange was in operation. Three years later, almost 49,000 telephones were in use. In 1880, Bell (in the photo below) merged this company with others to form the American Bell Telephone Company and in 1885 American Telegraph and Telephone Company (AT&T) was formed; it dominated telephone communications for the next century. At one point in time, Bell System employees purposely denigrated the U.S. telephone system to drive down stock prices of all phone companies and thus make it easier for Bell to acquire smaller competitors.
For example, people said the telephone would: help further democracy; be a tool for grassroots organizers; lead to additional advances in networked communications; allow social decentralization, resulting in a movement out of cities and more flexible work arrangements; change marketing and politics; alter the ways in which wars are fought; cause the postal service to lose business; open up new job opportunities; allow more public feedback; make the world smaller, increasing contact between peoples of all nations and thus fostering world peace; increase crime and aid criminals; be an aid for physicians, police, fire, and emergency workers; be a valuable tool for journalists; bring people closer together, decreasing loneliness and building new communities; inspire a decline in the art of writing; have an impact on language patterns and introduce new words; and someday lead to an advanced form of the transmission of intelligence.
An artist's impression of what an asteroid colliding with Earth might look like. Sixty-six million years ago an event like this, although on a much smaller scale, caused 75% of all animals to die out. Image: Don Davis Via NASA Image and Video Library
Luis Walter Alvarez (left) and his son Walter (right) are known for their theory that an asteroid collided with our planet 66 million years ago and caused all non-bird dinosaurs and many other animals to die out. Image: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory/ Wikimedia Commons
'It was only around 15 million years after the non-bird dinosaurs disappear, during what's termed the Oligocene Epoch, that we started to get really big mammals. This is when rhino-sized animals start to reappear. But up until that point it's a world filled with small animals, especially in comparison with the dinosaurs that came before them. It took a while for body size to catch up.'
'I suspect some of them would still be around. We don't know a lot about the last 10 million years of their reign and what we do know is based on only one area in the world, western North America. There is a really good record of those classic last non-bird dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops.
Should you file back taxes? It may not be too late to file a previous year's tax return to pay what you owe or claim your refund. Learn more about why one may choose to file back taxes and how to start this process.
One practical reason to file a back tax return is to see if the IRS owes you a tax refund. While many have federal income taxes withheld from their paychecks, sometimes too much money is withheld. In these cases, filing a tax return could result in a tax refund that puts money in your bank account.
The IRS prefers that you file all back tax returns for years you have not yet filed. That said, the IRS usually only requires you to file the last six years of tax returns to be considered in good standing. Even so, the IRS can go back more than six years in certain instances.
Unfortunately, there is a limit on how far back you can file a tax return to claim tax refunds and tax credits. This IRS only allows you to claim refunds and tax credits within three years of the tax return's original due date. By not filing within three years of the due date, you might end up missing out on a tax refund because you can no longer claim the lucrative tax credits or any excess withholding from your paycheck.
Finding documents from previous years may be challenging for some. Thankfully, the IRS has a form you can fill out to request any tax information they have on file for you for a given year. Form 4506-T allows you to request a transcript of your tax return information, even if you haven't filed a tax return. You can request information from the last 10 tax years.
Once you have all the forms you need, be sure to use the tax forms from the year you're filing. For instance, you must use 2020 tax return forms to file a 2020 tax return. You can find these documents on the IRS website. Patience is important when filling out a tax return by hand. And thankfully, you can also file tax returns from previous years using TurboTax.
The IRS has a few options to help you in this situation. The most common solution is an installment agreement with affordable payments. Another is proving financial hardship so that the IRS can agree to a settlement that they can reasonably expect you to pay. Penalty abatement, in which the IRS minimizes the penalties on your back tax debt is another option. However, this type of relief requires proving reasonable cause, such as a natural disaster or a death in the family.
In light of such odds, many taxpayers may hope that time alone will cure their tax problems. However betting on the statute of limitations is a risky proposition complicated by the fact that the actions you take can extend the time for charges to be brought by years. However knowing approximately how long you may be required to prove the source of income or the propriety of deductions can bring some peace of mind. However, no action can substitute for a conservative and meticulous handling of all your tax filing, payment, and disclosure obligations by a tax professional.
The period of limitations is the period of time in which you can amend your tax return to claim a credit or refund, or the IRS can assess additional tax. The information below reflects the periods of limitations that apply to income tax returns. Unless otherwise stated, the years refer to the period after the return was filed. Returns filed before the due date are treated as filed on the due date.
A similar practice occurred in ancient Rome, after the reform-minded emperor Julius Caesar tinkered with the calendar and established January 1 as the beginning of the new year circa 46 B.C. Named for Janus, the two-faced god whose spirit inhabited doorways and arches, January had special significance for the Romans. Believing that Janus symbolically looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future, the Romans offered sacrifices to the deity and made promises of good conduct for the coming year.
Generally, the IRS can include returns filed within the last three years in an audit. If we identify a substantial error, we may add additional years. We usually don't go back more than the last six years.
If an audit is not resolved, we may request extending the statute of limitations for assessment tax. The statute of limitations is a time period established by law when IRS can review, analyze, and resolve your tax-related issues. When the statutory period expires, we can no longer assess or collect additional tax, or allow you to claim a refund. It is generally three years after a return is due or was filed, whichever is later. There is also a statute of limitations for making refunds. For more information, see Statute Expiration Dates. Extending the statute gives you more time to provide further documentation to support your position; request an appeal if you do not agree with the audit results; or to claim a tax refund or credit. It also gives the IRS time to complete the audit and provides time to process the audit results.
The general statute of limitations gives the IRS three years to audit your tax return and assess back taxes against you. That three-year window starts on the day you file your tax return or the original due date of that return, whichever is later.
The default three-year statute of limitations increases to six years if the IRS can prove that you failed to report income on your tax return AND the omitted income exceeded 25% of the gross income you reported that year.
For example, say you filed your tax return, claiming $50,000 of W-2 wages. However, you neglected to report any income from your side hustle, in which you earned $15,000 managing social media for a few local businesses. Because the omitted income is more than 25% of the gross income you reported on your return, the IRS has six years to come after the unpaid taxes on your side hustle.
You may have heard that the IRS has ten years to collect your tax debt. This deadline is known as the Collection Statute Expiration Date (CSED). However, the clock doesn't start ticking on this 10-year window until the IRS makes an assessment.
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