IRS may issue $26 billion in fraudulent tax refunds, watchdog tells Congress

The Washington Post ^ | 5/8/12 | Ed O'Keefe

[ruralvoter]

The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t know how many identity thieves are filing fraudulent tax returns, and the agency risks issuing approximately $26 billion in fraudulent tax refunds tied to identity theft in the next five years, a watchdog told lawmakers Tuesday.

The IRS received 2.2 million fraudulent tax returns in 2011 and found that 940,000 of the returns, with $6.5 billion in associated fraudulent refunds, involved identity theft, according to J. Russell George, head of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). George told lawmakers that the IRS cannot definitively say how many identity thieves are filing fraudulent returns on an annual basis.

[kempster]

A friend of mine told me that while doing taxes this year he actually had someone call him for advice that said his girlfriend had him take her and her child as dependents on his retrun with the idea that they would split the money. Now she wants him to give her more money or she is going to report him to the IRS. Are people really this dumb?

[LucyT]

The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t know how many identity thieves are filing fraudulent tax returns, and the agency risks issuing approximately $26 billion in fraudulent tax refunds tied to identity theft in the next five years, a watchdog told lawmakers Tuesday.

The IRS received 2.2 million fraudulent tax returns in 2011 and found that 940,000 of the returns, with $6.5 billion in associated fraudulent refunds, involved identity theft, according to..."

[bgill]

Smells like more of the concerted effort to destroy the US. As if the IRS doesn’t have the means to flag returns that show new addresses, different family members and new jobs from past years. A certain number of changes from last year should cause it to be flagged.

[Bigun]

How about we work on curing the disease instead of worrying about symptoms!

http://www.fairtax.org

We will never again be a truly free people for so long as we continue to abide the communist inspired, class warfare inducing, INCOME tax and the IRS!

[Liz]

Tax loophole costs billions-----allows latino invaders to collect what's called an additional child tax credit. The credit – up to $1,000 per child – can be claimed even by families who pay nothing in taxes, in many cases resulting in a cash payment from the IRS. It is intended for working families with children who live in the same home.

But a local tax preparer came to Eyewitness TV-News to blow the whistle on millions of people who, he believes, are taking advantage of the system.

The tax preparer says many illegal immigrants are claiming the tax credit for children who've never lived in this country, and he showed 13 Investigates dozens of redacted tax returns to prove his point. "There is not a doubt in my mind there is huge fraud taking place here," said the whistleblower, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal. "I can bring out stacks and stacks. It's just so easy it's ridiculous." (Excerpt) Read more at wthr.com

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FREEPER Pete from Shawnee Mission posted--- I know folks who work for the IRS. They say that people with ITINS (Immigrant tins) will claim 4 or 5 nephews and nieces to get the credit and deductions. What is worse is that these are 18 and 19 year olds claiming Head of Household status and Self Employment income in an amount that is just enough to result in 0 tax due and maximum additional child tax credit. They know exactly what is going on, but nothing is done because it might be “discriminatory.”

It drives the IRS people nuts. They are essentially taking the taxes that they as citizens pay into the system and giving it to someone filing a crimnal return. Please do write your congresspeople and ask that no one with an ITIN get additional child tax credit, and that no one be allowed to go back and amend to claim ACTC after you get a valid SSN.

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Here are some toll-free numbers for Congress:

800-833-6354 (AMA sponsored)

1-877-851-6437

877-762-8762 toll-free number

866-808-0065 toll-free number

Toll-free US CAPITAL SWITCHBOARD 866-220-0044

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REFERENCE Treasury Department Says Illegal Aliens Collecting Billions in Tax Credits

According to the US Dept of Treasury’s Inspector General, more than $4.2 billion in additional child credits were paid out in 2010 to illegal immigrants. In 2005, the pay outs totaled $924 million. This program allows low income earners to claim a $1,000 per child credit. $20 billion EITC is estimated to have been paid out to these cunning "impoverished" illegals. Most of them are collecting over and over again-----using multiple identities-----falsifying official apps---claiming children they do not have and/or falsely stating kids are back in their homelands.

REFERENCE March 8, 2012 KENNER, La. -- Kenner police arrested illegal Marvin Baca who sold false W-2 forms to another illegal immigrant for $1,500. Baca sold fraudulent W-2 forms for $1,500 to other Hispanics here illegally.

Police said that on one of the forged W-2 forms had a SS no of a person living in Virginia. Police said illegal Hispanics purchase fictitious W-2 forms and file false tax returns with the government to receive EITC refunds. Baca was charged with one count of ID theft and two counts of forgery.

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The "just here for a better life" crowd who freely violate our borders and "do the jobs Americans won't do" have more criminal enterprises than you can shake a stick at.

<><> Hilderberto Salinas sold state drivers' licenses issued out of the state’s Motor Vehicle Agency in NJ to illegals with multiple identities who did not have the necessary id's....among 40 people who participated in the widespread ring. "Impoverished" illegals paid $2,500 to $7,000 apiece for the licenses.

<><>ICE's "documents and benefits fraud task force" found a common practice among "impoverished" illegals is to buy several faked identitues for several thousand dollars each----the illegal then votes and rides the US gravy train under several names. Jose Madrigal---the Washington state rapist---had some 30 identities.

<><>June 26, 2010 An illegal using multiple identities was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay back $3 million in fraudulently obtained unemployment compensation. Manuel Mejia Ordonez, got eight years for conspiracy to commit mail fraud........and identity theft.

<><> July 21, 2006----NJ BERGEN RECORD---Pelcastre brothers, Angel and Jorge, Dallas, Texas, were a walking threat to US national security, expert document forgers who, for a few thousand dollars, could give anyone a new identity, NJ L/E authorities said. The Texas brothers were a "one-stop shop" for a myriad of fake US documents, including birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver's licenses----for any state in the US------ passports and resident alien cards, said state police.

The Texas brothers turned a NJ hotel room into a business office and were readying a massive cache of fake Social Security cards for delivery to a local NJ identity broker. Officers happened upon two cars bearing Texas plates in a NJ hotel parking lot. The Texas brothers were followed to a NJ office supply store nearby where they purchased computer supplies. Officers then followed the Texans to a NJ storage facility in Secaucus, NJ, where the Texans loaded several boxes into a car. One of them stood lookout. After a search, police recovered laminating sheets with built-in security features, pages of blank documents waiting for fake names and information, finished documents, computers and software to create the fake IDs.

All told, the haul was worth about $500,000 on the street when sold to "impoverished illegals." Police also recovered $6,000 in cash, which was the first payment from a NJ fake document broker for a shipment of 500 phony Social Security cards. ####

[Made In The USA]

AMEN. Cut the spending and make the tax code so simplistic even a Biden could figure it out.

[soycd]

Exactly. All the data the IRS has can easily be examined and flagged as desired. There is no good excuse for this crap.

[excalibur21]

Hey Liz, this is a video to help back up your point.

http://www.wthr.com/story/17861738/will-lawmakers-act-to-close-tax-loophole-for-illegal-immigrants

[little jeremiah]

Obamugabe (saw that today, it fits) and his crew like this - helps break the USA faster.

[Liz]

Thanks.

[Jim from C-Town]

I am pretty certain they got me last year. Somebody used my sons SS# on a tax return last year. He died in 2010. When I filed last year they said someone already used him as a deduction. Had to send in BC and Death certificate along with SS card copies to get the deduction.

[onedoug]

gobmint fraud ping....

[unixfox]

There is an easy simple solution to all this.

Abolish the income tax and dismantle the IRS. Institute a flat or fair tax.

It REALLY is that simple. But of course our so called “leaders” and “lawmakers” don’t want to do it because it would strip them of the control they have over the populace.

[TheBattman]

Absolutely no surprise here. My father-in-law passed away last Fall. When my Mother-in-law filed her taxes this year, the IRS notified her that a tax return had already been filed using his SS#.

IT took a rather long-roundabout journey and battle to get her taxes re-filed, along with a copy of his death certificate, and many calls to the IRS. Was a major pain.

Yet no word on any attempts to actually tack down who used his SS# (or how they got it). Where is all the news on prosecution of these criminals?

Its all because the IRS is more concerned with nailing the average “Joe” for incorrectly counting some mileage or depreciation, thus making him owe an extra $50 plus a couple hundred in interest and penalties... all while these frauds are ripping the IRS for $billions by simply filing fraudulent returns.

The very crime my deceased FIL was the victim of, is the exact “fix” the IRS supposedly implemented before returns began being processed this year... and what crashed their servers. More of that wonderfully ineffective government work.

[TheBattman]

AMEN. Cut the spending and make the tax code so simplistic even a Biden could figure it out.

Is there such a thing as something so simple even Biden can figure it out? That lump is about the dumbest man I have ever seen...

[Bigun]

Abolish the income tax, in EVERY form, and dismantle the IRS.

Amen, Amen! And AMEN!

Institute a flat or fair tax.

It REALLY is that simple. But of course our so called “leaders” and “lawmakers” don’t want to do it because it would strip them of the control they have over the populace.

Absolutely and that is precisely WHY a flat rate income tax won't get the job done as it would leave to the same folks the job of defining just what is , or is not, "Income". That seemingly small thing is at the very heart of all that is wrong in Washington and we are NOT going to fix it until we take that hammer away from them!

[Marathoner]

I totally agree re: the fair tax (and I’m a CPA, so there goes a piece of my work if the income tax goes). It would be a lenghty process, however, as you gotta repeal the 16th Amendment, or else you run the danger of both an income and the fair tax, the worst of all scenarios.

[Bigun]

Thank you! I have met a great many CPA’s over the years and have yet to have one oppose the fairtax once he FULLY understood the bill!

There is no provision in the FairTax bill (HR 25) that would prevent having a national sales tax and the income tax. However, the FairTax legislation does three things that effectively dismantle the income tax: (1) it abolishes the IRS, (2) it repeals all statutory language having to do with taxing income and payroll (i.e., the Internal Revenue Code), and (3) it eliminates the filing of annual income tax returns to the federal government for over 140 million Americans. The 16th Amendment does not “require” an income tax, it only “allows” one, and the FairTax will have broken that egg in a million pieces. It would be extremely difficult to put that egg “back together again.” Once the FairTax is enacted it would be an extremely daunting task for Congress to make people start filing income tax returns again. There would be a public uproar. Once the American public has experienced FREEDOM from the income tax it’s REALLY hard to imagine them tolerating going back.

Beyond that, the sponsors of the FairTax are totally dedicated to the permanent repeal of the income tax. No current supporter of the FairTax would support the FairTax unless the entire income tax is repealed. There is a separate bill, HJR 16, which repeals the 16th Amendment to the Constitution but it must go through a different adoption process than HR 25. HJR 16 has to be passed by a two-thirds vote of members of both the House and the Senate and be approved (or ratified) by three-fourths of state legislatures (38). We are currently laying the organizational groundwork for this push and have already started the educational process at the state level. I SERIOUSLY doubt that the public will put up with any effort to prevent it’s passage once they have lived under the fairtax even for a little while!

Finally, and I’m sure that you are already quite aware of this fact, the reality is that we already have both an income and a type of sales tax today. All of our U.S. produced goods and services are burdened with an “embedded” tax due to the cascading of income and payroll taxes paid by U.S. employers to the U.S. Treasury at every step of production. Of course, these costs are passed on to the ultimate payer, the customer. It’s fair to call these embedded taxes a “sales tax” because we pay it every time we buy any goods or services — we just don’t see it. The FairTax eliminates these embedded taxes, resulting in a single-rate national sales tax visible to all.

[Bigun]

...there goes a piece of my work if the income tax goes.

I wouldn't worry about that to much if I were you! I strongly suspect that you would be PLENTY busy as economic growth in this country would surpass anything anyone alive today has ever seen and remain so for quite some time!