Sherman to unveil ‘missing taxpayers’ owed refunds

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Before he won elected office, Rep. Brad Sherman was a CPA and a tax lawyer. So the news conference he’s scheduled to reveal the names of taxpayers owed millions in refunds seems right up his alley.

Sherman is fighting for his political career in an election contest this year that pits him against fellow Democratic Rep. Howard Berman for a newly drawn San Fernando Valley congressional district seat.

That may explain why he’s going to publicly identify 4,176 Los Angeles County residents he says are owed more than $6.7 million in 2010 tax refunds that have gone unpaid because the IRS couldn’t find them. (Sherman’s congressional staff hasn’t yet explained how the boss located the taxpayers, three of whom have about $30,000 coming.)

Sherman plans to tell people how they can find out whether they are owed a refund and post the names he came up with on his website--just ahead of this year’s deadline for filing federal and state tax returns.

After his 9 a.m. Saturday news conference at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Sherman says he’ll stick around a while to help ‘dozens of local residents with free advice’ in preparing their 2011 tax returns.

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-- Jean Merl