IRS Erroneously Paid Slavery Credits

AP ^ | April 13, 2002, 12:26 AM EDT | CURT ANDERSON

[Jean S]

WASHINGTON --

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 testimony this week before the Senate that refunds of more than $80,000 for each spouse in a married couple were issued "in some instances."

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.

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

[Focault's Pendulum]

I was picked on in eighth grade. So I gave myself an additional deduction of $5000.

I'm giving myself a $1,000 deduction for just having clicked on this thread!

[FairWitness]

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.

Sounds like maybe the people asking for reparations are getting some inside help from IRS agents to pull off a scam.

[300winmag]

Sounds like maybe the people asking for reparations are getting some inside help from IRS agents to pull off a scam.

I'd like to know (and they'll never tell us) what line on the tax form, or what supplemental form, they use to scam off a cool $43K apiece. My guess is there are still plenty of klintonoids in high places in the IRS, and they have their own special department to route these forms through. Expect someone inside the IRS to be getting a kickback, too.

This isn't "ha ha ha", these are serious felonies, and it sounds like they'll still be here this year, too.

[Jasper]

Our govenment at work. /sarcasm

April 15th is right around the corner.....arghhhhhhh!!!!

[NautiNurse]

This story was buried 7 pages into my local news rag this morning. It was usurped by page 2 "Celebrity Click" stories about Britney Spears, Ozzie Osborne, and Robin Williams, as well as page 4 Town Cool To 'Cheney High' and Space Station Residents Get Welcome Visitors.

I wonder if the IRS gets a pass for this "meager" 1% error rate. I'm seeing red at the moment...

[ridensm]

Wow, think maybe I can file an amended return? $43,000 vs. a $500 fine if I get caught and I refuse to remove the claim. Sounds like if someone refuses to remove the claim they still get the money but have to pay a $500 fine to me. Maybe the government has already declared reparation payments should be paid and this is the way they're doing it. Wouldn't be the first time they told all the rest of us it's not the way it should work.

[NormsRevenge]

IRS=I'm Really Stupid

The IRS will not comment on how much monies have been recovered...Dohhhh!!!!

What I want to know is did x42 already cash his check ;-?

[Nick Danger]

My guess is ... they have their own special department to route these forms through.

Absolutely. This is not a small deal. This is an entitlement program that was legislated and implemented entirely within an executive branch bureaucracy, by people who know better than the Congress how federal tax dollars shall be spent. It is a form of treason against the Constitution of the United States.

No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law

We're talking about the Treasury Department issuing checks here, and not insignificant checks.

Nor was this some disgrunted employee. It would take a lot of people working in concert to pull this off. We have a bureaucracy run amok here folks, passing its own appropriations and sending out the checks.

This is a serious, serious threat to the ability of the people to control the government through their elected representatives. It's not the money. This is a "principle" thing. Executive branch bureaucrats do not decide for themselves how to spend the taxpayers' money. That is treason, and I hope this is dealt with just that way. This is one of those episodes that demands a public hanging, so that the rest of the civil service bureaucracy understands that this kind of thing will be dealt with extremely harshly.

[Jean S]

Bump.

[tututango]

Ok, who else read this headline and thought wtf?

Let's all claim a freeper tax credit next year and see if the IRS catches it.

[sandydipper]

about 12 low level IRS employees applied for the tax credit

Sorta reminds me of the time the local septic got stopped up for the Fl. Sunshine Parkway. A Roto Rooter guy recovered thousands of reciepts that had been flushed by some "low level" toll booth attendants. Estimated loss was in the millions.

Outa be allowed to shoot them "low level" employees on the spot.

[WatchOutForSnakes]

Without a doubt it is an inside job. There is no place on a tax return to claim a "slave credit". This is just pure theft and it's being carried on by IRS employees. There is no other way it could happen.

[missmanhattan]

when my grandfather came from italy in 1923 to new york city he was discriminated against by the irish in the neighborhood (guinea bastard)they called him. how much do i get.?