IRS doesn’t tell 1 million taxpayers that illegal immigrants stole their Social Security numbers

The Washington Times ^ | August 30, 2016 | Stephen Dinan

[jazusamo]

The IRS has discovered more than 1 million Americans whose Social Security numbers were stolen by illegal immigrants, but officials never bothered to tell the taxpayers themselves, the agency’s inspector general said in a withering new report released Tuesday.

Investigators first alerted the IRS to the problem five years ago, but it’s still not fixed, the inspector general said, and a pilot program meant to test a solution was canceled, and fell woefully short anyway.

As a result most taxpayers don’t learn that their identities have been stolen and their Social Security files may be screwed up.

“Taxpayers identified as victims of employment-related identity theft are not notified,” the inspector general said.

Victims’ numbers are stolen by illegal immigrants who need to give employers a valid Social Security number in order to get a job. Employers are prohibited from probing too deeply into numbers, even when they suspect fraud.

But the IRS learns of the scam when the illegal immigrants file their taxes using a special Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) the agency doles out chiefly to illegal immigrants, as a way of making sure they’re paying taxes even if they’re not supposed to be in the U.S.

Between 2011 and 2015, the agency flagged nearly 1.1 million returns where someone appeared to have stolen a valid Social Security number, the inspector general said.

[fruser1]

Don’t expect the writer of article to know what they’re talking about.

For things that have come up in the press that I actually knew something about, I found there was ALWAYS some weird detail they got wrong.

Usually IRS finds out about the “scam” when they get two returns with the same TIN and different address and data and it’s not just a simple transposition of a couple of numbers. For that, they’ll send a notice first and see if it’s corrected before venturing into scam territory.

[Valpal1]

The reason they don’t want to fix this is not the income taxes, that is chump change.

It’s the payroll taxes that are being paid on the SSN that they want to keep rolling in. Every SSN that has more than one worker using it and paying in 15% employment taxes delays the collapse of the Ponzi scheme.

[Nailbiter]

true - but our minders will never admit

[tophat9000]

Jesus I've been posting about this for the last 15 years SS was stolen by an illegal alien going back in the nineties

I only found out by accident because I went to the California Franchise Tax Board to pull copies of my W-2s

I gave the age of my SS number and she asked me if I was and gave me some Hispanic name of so-and-so Metal Works in Santa Ana I said no

Then she said oh you must be and gave me my correct name

So i aslrd...you have two people reporting into that social security number?

she says oh yes I'm not supposed to tell you that.

I said you have the information the database why don't you do something about it?!

She said I can't tell you that but we're not allowed to do anything about it

I asked her how do I clear it and she said what i had to go to Social Security

So I go to Social Security and tell them I have someone reporting under my social security number and I want to clear it up and they told me flat-out we will not confirm or deny that and we won't give you the information if someone else is using it.. so you can't clear it up

[publius911]

Impeachment is not even close to what that scumbag deserves.

Only elected criminals can be impeached.

Appointed criminals must be fired. Unfortunately, the only person who can fire them are the elected criminal who appoints them. In the executive branch.

Guess who.

[Mr. Jeeves]

They need the illegal alien votes. Because they are on the side of the angels. CNN said so. :)

[jazusamo]

Thanks for relating your absolutely pathetic treatment from the SSA. At least you got somebody who told you the truth even though she wasn’t supposed to.

In my view it’s criminal because they know what’s going on from the very top down and have done nothing to stop it.

[Valpal1]

Mine was stolen in the mid nineties as well. I found out about it because the nimrod claimed an extreme number of exemptions on his w-2 to avoid withholding and then didn’t file for a tax refund.

They came after me for alleged unpaid taxes. I had to provide them a notarized affidavit attesting to my life history in a different state for the tax period in question.

I have no doubt the number is still be used by others.

[tinamina]

Exactly!