Man discovers glitch in circuit-breaker application

AUGUSTA (AP) – People applying for a property tax or rent refund may not be getting the money they’re due because of a glitch with the application.

Confusing instructions on the two-page Tax and Rent Refund Application could lead applicants to report more income than they actually have, reducing or even eliminating their refunds.

At issue is the part of the form that asks about income. It asks for adjusted gross income and then for other income, including dividends and interest. But dividends and interest are included in the first figure.

“It would have doubled my income if I’d done it the way the instructions said,” said Tieche Shelton, 68, of Farmingdale. “I’d have thrown it in the wastebasket.”

Shelton took his application to an accountant, who agreed with him the form is flawed.

The form is essentially the same as in previous years, but the line for dividends and interest income was blocked out before.

“The instructions are probably not as clear as they could be,” said Anthony Gould, assistant director of the income tax division at Maine Revenue Services.

The state began taking applications for the so-called “circuit-breaker” program on Aug. 1. Lawmakers this year expanded it to cover both property owners and renters, and raised the income minimums in an attempt to provide greater tax relief.

Officials have touted the increased popularity of the program, noting this week that 16,000 Mainers had already submitted applications.

Sen. Joseph Perry, D-Bangor, a Taxation Committee co-chairman, reviewed the form Thursday and agreed the dividends-and-interest portion could confuse some applicants.

“There could be someone who has most of their income come from dividends,” he said. “There’s probably some people out there that it would have a dramatic effect on.”

Gould said there’s no evidence anyone has made the mistake that prompted Shelton’s complaint. But he said it’s unlikely the agency would catch such an error.

Gould said future printings of the form would clarify that dividends and interest should not be reported more than once.

“We don’t want individuals counting income twice,” he said.

Rep. Thomas Watson, D-Bath and a member of the Taxation Committee, said lawmakers probably will try to simplify the form next session and may incorporate it into the state income tax form.

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Information from: Kennebec Journal, http://www.kjonline.com/

Police detain 4 men after bank heist

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) – Police detained four men in connection with one of the world’s biggest heists and recovered more than $2 million of the $70 million stolen from Brazil’s Central Bank, officials said Friday.

The recovered cash was found hidden in three pickup trucks that were on a vehicle transporter truck located several hundred miles from the ransacked Central Bank vault in the northeastern city of Fortaleza.

Authorities said two men in the transporter and two others who own a car dealership have been placed under temporary arrest, allowing them to be held for 10 days without being charged.

Federal police spokeswoman Sabrina Albuquerque told The Associated Press that investigators have discovered that the dealership received cash for several vehicles.

When police intercepted the transporter near the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte, 1,180 miles from Fortaleza, it was carrying 11 vehicles. She did not disclose what led them to the truck in the first place.

A search that followed uncovered about $2 million stashed inside the seats, bodywork and spare tires of the pickups.

“We still have to inspect eight cars on the transporter and we think more cash will be found,” she added.

Police said the robbery occurred sometime last weekend when the bank was closed. They said about 10 men spent three months digging a tunnel – about 260 feet long and 28 inches high – from a house they had rented to the bank’s vault.

The money stolen was Brazil’s currency the real and was equivalent of $70 million. The money found so far was in stacks of 50 real notes and tied with Central Bank wrappers, Albuquerque said.

Authorities have said they are looking into the possibility the heist was pulled off by the First Capital Command, one of Brazil’s most notorious organized crime groups.

While the amount taken surpassed the $65 million stolen in 1987 from the Knightbridge Safe Deposit Center in London, once recognized by experts as the planet’s biggest robbery, it was dwarfed by the theft of $900 million in U.S. bills plus as much as $100 million worth of euros from the Iraq Central Bank in 2003.

AP-ES-08-12-05 2135EDT