`Return it,' readers say.

Byline: Bob Welch / The Register-Guard

FOR JOHN SAEMANN, there was never a doubt what to do with the $11,320 tax refund check he got recently from the government, even though he was owed only $300.

"Send it back," the 82-year-old Eugene man says. "The money didn't belong to me."

But when he mentioned the situation to five people, all told him otherwise: Keep it.

I was surprised. Is that really what most people would consider the right choice?

Apparently not. After a call for responses, I heard from 56 people. Forty-six said send the money back, five said keep it, three suggested various plans to see if the money could be kept and two suggested donating it to local entities.

A sample of the response, with thanks for those who shared:

"I'm embarrassed to be on the same planet with the five `friends' who counseled Saemann not to return the overpayment check."

"I think your reader should notify the government about the mistake. Why? Bad karma for one. Also, if the situation were reversed, you know he would want his money back."

"I'm 82 years old, and I'd definitely keep it. Put it in the bank and keep the interest anyway. If it takes the IRS 20 years to figure out its error, it probably wouldn't matter."

"I'm 82 and would not have had to ask, `What should I do?' The check would have been in the return mail."

"Return it. Peace of mind means much more than money."

"If he keeps the money and he wasn't entitled to it, it effectively robs all of us, including those five people who said he should keep it. I wonder if they would be so quick to tell him to keep it if it were coming directly out of their personal checking accounts."

"John Saemann knows five people whose integrity is for sale for a little over $11,000. Mine isn't."

"I vote for Mr. Saemann to return the check to the feds. He should enclose a note telling the Bush family and Congress that this is how an ethical U.S. citizen acts."

"I would think every time you spent some of that money that your conscience would be working on you and for a long time after. Return ill-gotten gains."

"IWOULD FIRST determine some guarantee of ownership before I made a decision. Once it was mine, more or less, I would keep $320 and give the remaining 11 grand to Greenhill Humane Society. I couldn't, in all good conscience, keep the money; on the other hand I couldn't, again in all good conscience, give it back to the government."

"Should he decide to keep the money, at least have him send me the portion I've paid in payroll taxes, corporation taxes and personal income taxes."

"Friends or not, the suggestion that Mr. Saemann should keep the money is shortsighted and cruel. When the government realizes the mistake in seven years only Mr. Saemann will be held accountable."

"Notify the IRS to apply the balance to future taxes."

"He should ask himself the question, `Am I part of the solution in this country, or the problem?' If he decides to keep the money, he will be no better than the corporate CEOs and their screwy accounting practices."

"It would be flat-out, 100 percent wrong to keep the money, no matter how elderly or poor or how badly he may need the money, no matter how little the money would be missed."

"There is no ethical question. To some extent, shame on you for suggesting there is."

"My mother received a $24,000 check from the Social Security Administration. Her first thought was `brand new Buick,' but she knew the money was not hers. She was going to send the check back but thought that getting the check back would just confuse the government or the check would somehow get lost. She put the money in a savings account and waited for the government to realize its mistake and ask for their money back. It did and she had the money to send back. She also made a couple of bucks from interest."

"We've seen greed at the top, but the moral fabric of the whole country is dropping almost as fast as the stock market. `Doing the right thing,' notifying the IRS of the mistake, is the obvious correct course."

"To me this is not any different than if the man had been following somebody and saw $11,000 drop out of his pocket. He knows that he isn't entitled to it."

"I am a licensed tax consultant here in Eugene ... put the extra $11,000 in a demand-type savings account and see how long it takes for the government to ask for the money back."

"I wonder what grade-school-age children would say in this situation?"