Posted on 04/13/2002 2:02:07 PM PDT by Militiaman7
IRS Erroneously Paid Slavery Credits
By CURT ANDERSON
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service mistakenly paid out more than $30 million to tax filers seeking nonexistent slavery tax credits in 2000 and 2001, according to a Treasury Department investigation.
A growing number of black taxpayers are being misled by scams falsely claiming that, for a fee, they can get tax credits or refunds as reparations for slavery. The scams are given credence when some taxpayers actually get money.
The IRS received more than 77,000 tax returns last year claiming $2.7 billion in reparations refunds, up from 13,000 the year before. Last year, the IRS discovered that some erroneous refunds were being issued but was only partly effective in stopping them.
The Treasury inspector general for tax administration, David C. Williams, said in Senate testimony this week that refunds of more than $80,000 were issued ``in some instances'' to married couples when each spouse claimed the reparations credit.
In 2000 and the first four months of 2001, Williams said, more than $30 million in erroneous reparations payments were paid. After April of last year, a computer program developed by the inspector general identified an additional $16.1 million in claims before they were paid.
The Washington Post, citing an unidentified official, reported that one IRS employee is under investigation for allegedly helping process returns that claimed the credit. At least 12 current and former IRS employees, all low-level workers in processing centers, applied to receive such a credit, the newspaper report said.
Typical scams use terms such as ``black investment taxes,'' ``reparations for African-Americans'' or a ``black inheritance tax refund.''
This is the first indication of what these scams cost the government. Most of the mistaken payments were for about $43,000, a figure Essence magazine suggested in 1993 as the updated value of 40 acres and a mule, which some freed slaves were given under an order by a Union general during the Civil War.p>
The tax agency is now trying to recover the money it paid out, though officials would not disclose how much has been collected.
Starting Monday, the IRS will be begin levying a $500 fine on taxpayers who do not withdraw the claim if they have been caught.
On the Net:
Internal Revenue Service: http://www.irs.gov
Treasury inspector general: http://www.ustreas.gov/tigta
And those who tried or got it should be in prison also.
Sorry, if this has already been posted I did a search but it didn't come up.
Like their attacking whistleblowers erroneously?
How can you file for taxes in a non-standard way and ask for things that don't exist and actually have it go through without red flags going up?
Granted, if Lester Brown files his taxes in such a way, and it gets flagged for review by Tawana Jackson, then maybe Lester gets a lucky break because Tawana may approve it -- but what are the odds of that happening? The idea that a couple actually received an $80,000 refund because they penciled in some casual comment about Black Reparations seems quite ludicrous.
'Course we are talking about incompetence with a governmental body, so I guess it could be true. But my hunch is that the AP was fed a bunch of hooey and didn't dig too deep on this. Probably just a trial balloon for more activism on the reparations issue.
Sure you did.
Thanks, anyway for your diligence.
At the top of the "News/Activism" page, I type in the "Find in Forum" box "IRS", leave "By Title" selected, and hit "Find", none of the articles you cited show up (nor does this one). How do you do the search so as to find something useful?
That was my thought, as well.
Ok where's the "Onion" logo?
I give up.
It's so nice of AP to spread the word, and make special note of the VERY minimal consequences... just in time for the deadline, too, just in case the procrastinators might miss out! Look for 200,000 next year.
If I am not mistaken, if you use "By Title" you would
have to use the full titile of the thread: Example this
thread would be "IRS Erroneously Paid Slavery Credits".
That is why Jim Robinson has said when posting an article
to use the same title as the article from where
it is being taken from rather than making up our own.
If you change from "By Title" to "Keyword" then you
only have to put in one word such as "Refund" if
that doesn't get you anything then use "IRS" etc. I
remembered hearing something about this on the news
yesterday and figured it would be posted so thats
what I did, and here I am.
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