Free Republic

In tax year 2014, according to a report published by the Internal Revenue Service, the federal government hauled in a then-record $1,377,797,136,000 in individual income taxes. Nonetheless, of the 148,606,578 individual income tax return filers that year, 52,062,499 (or 35 percent) filed what the IRS calls “nontaxable returns,” which means they paid no net individual income taxes. Among these 52,062,499 filers who did not pay income taxes in 2014, according to Table 3.3 in the report, were 31,129,405 filers who also received $90,276,007,000 in payments from the federal government for “refundable” tax credits. “In total, taxpayers claimed $105.6 billion in...

Illegal immigrants need only one number to access billions of dollars in free taxpayer cash. The Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) unlocks an exclusive gateway for non-citizens to receive monies meant for working, low-income Americans. The nine-digit code was created by bureaucrats in 1996 for foreigners who had to deal with the IRS. It allows people without a Social Security number, including those in the country illegally, to file taxes. “It’s just a farce to say it was created to collect taxes,” Robert Rector, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News. “It’s nothing but a welfare program...

A former Rhode Island state lawmaker has agreed to plead guilty to fraud charges, becoming the third former House member in 11 days to be charged with criminal conduct and prompting the U.S. attorney to decry the state’s political culture. The charges filed against Democrat Ray Gallison in federal court Monday include mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and filing false tax returns. Gallison, an attorney, acknowledged taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a dead man’s estate and other misconduct. “This says something about our political culture here, which I think should get our attention,” U.S. Attorney Peter...

Bill Clinton was paid more than $1 million in 2015 by Laureate Education, a global operator of for-profit colleges, according to tax returns released today by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The new figure brings the former president’s total compensation from Laureate to more than $17.5 million for his five-year role as an “honorary chancellor.” His role consisted of advising the company on educational matters and traveling to campuses across the world to speak to young people. Clinton ended his position at Laureate in April 2015 after Hillary Clinton launched her bid for the White House. Laureate International Universities, the company’s international...

Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill deducted $1,042,000 in charitable contributions last year — $1 million of which went to their own family non-profit, the Clinton Foundation. Clinton released her tax forms on Friday in a move that is seen as a way to pressure Donald Trump to release his taxes. The GOP nominee has refused to release the records, saying that he is under a routine audit.

Authorities across the United States this week arrested dozens of gang members who stand accused of making millions of dollars stealing consumer identities in order to file fraudulent tax refund requests with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The arrests highlight the dramatic shift in gang activity in recent years from high-risk drug dealing to identity fraud — a far less risky yet equally lucrative crime.

**SNIP** Much like Clinton’s speech to Salesforce, the former secretary of state’s speech isn’t available online nor would ISRI give video upon request. The speech of ISRI’s 2015 convention speaker, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, appears on the company’s YouTube page, but Bill Clinton’s 2009 speech to the same group does not. But such is the case for almost all of Hillary Clinton’s paid speeches from 2014 — though most were given to massive audiences, almost none are available in their entirety online. What’s clear is that most, if not all, of the companies and organizations that hired Hillary...

Thousands of Ohioans are getting asked some curious questions online and over the phone lately, such as: How old is your grandchild? What brand of car do you have? How long is your mortgage? Many of these people have a question of their own: What is this—some kind of scam? The answer: The quiz is legit, part of an effort by the state to thwart … scams. Specifically, the filing of phony tax returns. Under the new program, some Ohioans who have filed their taxes get letters in the mail from the state Department of Taxation directing them to take...

So far, every for-profit enterprise started by Al Sharpton and known to National Review Online has been shut down in at least one jurisdiction for failure to pay taxes, a review of public records in New York and Delaware reveals. Records show that Sharpton’s beleaguered for-profit entities often overlap and intertwine, some sharing ties with the reverend’s nonprofit organization, National Action Network. Their financial records are copious, confusing, and sometimes outright bizarre, and together, they depict persistent financial woes for Sharpton, who also personally owes New York State nearly $596,000, according to active tax warrants. “He clearly appears — based...

New York Rep. Michael Grimm pleaded guilty to a single count of tax fraud Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court. The guilty plea comes one month after the congressman, a Republican who represents Staten Island, was elected to a third term. In April, Grimm was named in a 20-count indictment that accused him of under-reporting the payroll and earnings of his Upper East Side restaurant, Healthalicious, which he ran from 2007 to 2010. He pleaded not guilty in federal court and was released on bond. Prosecutors alleged Grimm employed a number of immigrant workers who did not have legal status to...

The Rev. Al Sharpton is perhaps best known these days for his MSNBC show. This provides viewers with a daily diet of its host misreading his teleprompter and egregiously overusing the phrase, “I mean, what is he talking about?” But there is much more to Sharpton than his left-leaning political worldview and unimpressive TV skills. He rose to national prominence in the 1980s when he falsely accused white law enforcement officials of raping a teenage African-American girl. After that, he moved on to incite anti-Semitic violence in Brooklyn and Harlem. This was his preparation for a later bid for the...

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — State investigators have arrested a woman accused of seeking a tax refund of more than $94 million. Now investigators say they are looking for the woman's relative, whom they say also filed a fake tax return. Channel 2 Action News was at a Cobb County supermarket as Brigitte Jackson was arrested at the bank counter inside the store. “It doesn’t matter if it’s $94 or $94 million. We’re going to go after you and hold you accountable,” said Georgia Department of Revenue Special Investigations Chief Josh Waites.

Lawyers for billionaire Beanie Baby creator and convicted tax cheat Ty Warner say he’s “a self-made man with a generous heart” and a federal judge was right not to send him to the big house. Prosecutors were left fuming in January after Warner was handed just two years probation and 500 hours community service for hiding $100 million in secret Swiss bank accounts to con the IRS. In February, they asked the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to order Warner be resentenced. But attorneys for the 69-year-old Oak Brook toy industry titan argued in a 57-page court filing Thursday...

An unusual number of physicians in several U.S. states are just finding out that they’ve been victimized by tax return fraud this year, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. An apparent spike in tax fraud cases against medical professionals is fueling speculation that the crimes may have been prompted by a data breach at some type of national organization that certifies or provides credentials for physicians. Scott Colby, executive vice president of the New Hampshire Medical Society, said he started hearing from physicians in his state about a week ago, when doctors who were just filing their tax returns began receiving notices from...

A new audit-report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) shows that the IRS sent at least 343 potentially fraudulent tax returns in 2011 to the same, single address in Shanghai, China, for a total of $156,533 in tax refunds. The same report also shows that 655 potentially fraudulent tax refunds totaling $220,489 were sent to the same address in Kaunas, Lithuania. Other potentially fraudulent refunds, 580 of them, were sent to the same address in Orlando, Fla.; 355 to the same address in Lakewood, Colo; and another 291 to another single address in Orlando, Fla. In total,...

The government on Tuesday authorized establishment of a committee that will examine ways to eliminate cash from the Israeli economy—the better to prevent citizens from cheating on their taxes. The committee will be chaired by Harel Locker, director of the Prime Minister’s Office. Cash is easily passed from individual to individual, and transactions using cash can take place without the tax man’s supervision. Not so electronic transactions; with modern computers, banks can keep tabs on how much people deposit into their accounts and how much they withdraw, while credit card companies have an up-to-the-second record of how much people spend....

WASHINGTON, D.C., August 5, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The General Accounting Office (GAO) will investigate every dollar of federal funding going to Planned Parenthood, as well as other organizations that support the liberalization of abortion laws, for potential fraud. The GAO will investigate the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), the Guttmacher Institute, the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS), the Population Council, and Advocates for Youth. The “comprehensive” report will list every service performed and every federal dollar allocated, four Congressmen announced on Monday afternoon.

Rep. Jack Kingston has introduced a bill to stop illegal immigrants from receiving child tax credits saying the current system is "absurd" and riddled with fraud. In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV, the Georgia Republican said the measure could save the taxpayer between $3 billion and $4 billion a year at a time when lawmakers are trying to find ways to decrease the size of the deficit. "What has happened is that illegal aliens have been given the right to claim child tax credit and it's so bad that one guy in Indianapolis was discovered he had claimed 20...

AUSTIN, TX - If Howard Antelis looks familiar, it's because he's the guy who blew the whistle on the IRS. "I'm horrified and ashamed and embarrassed by what I've seen," the veteran IRS tax examiner told 13 Investigates last summer. "We've been allowing the U.S. taxpayer to get robbed for years now... and we should all be outraged at what's going on." Antelis, along with a tax preparer in central Indiana, helped WTHR expose massive fraud involving the IRS. Eyewitness News discovered the federal agency had been giving away billions of dollars in improper tax credits to undocumented workers. Making...

A mother of three, who taunted authorities to catch her as she stole about $20 million from the IRS, has been jailed for 21 years. Rashia Wilson, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft earlier this year, admitted to stealing more than $3 million but the figure is believed to be much higher. Tampa police were first alerted to the fraud in 2010 when they noticed a drop in drug dealing in the area.