| IRS Workers Discouraged From Preventing Tax Fraud |
| Aug-09-2012 |
| Keywords: obama, romney, ad, uncaring, scrutiny, backlash |
A new report claims the IRS discouraged employees from verifying applications for the government's Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) program.
The U.S. Treasury inspector general is accusing the Internal Revenue Service of discouraging employees from reviewing applications for the ID numbers, which are generally from non-resident workers.
The inspector general specifically says there were 154 mailing addresses that were used 1,000 or more times on applications, including nearly 16,000 numbers assigned to a Phoenix address.
The report, examining year 2011, also found weak controls can result in the numbers being assigned to people who have not proved their identity or foreign status, which can lead to fraudulent tax returns.
The inspector general also found 10 individual addresses were used for filing 53,994 tax returns and receiving $86.4 million in fraudulent tax refunds. For example, 23,994 tax refunds totaling $46.3 million were issued to an address in Atlanta; and 2,507 tax refunds totaling $10.4 million were issued to an address in Oxnard, Calif.
In addition, the Treasury's Inspector General for Tax Administration found 10 bank accounts received 23,560 tax refunds totaling more than $16 million -- including: 2,706 tax refunds issued to a single account totaling $7.3 million.
The report was sent to the IRS on July 16, and released more than three weeks later.
Congressional lawmakers are demanding answers by the end of the month.
Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., told IRS Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman in a letter that IRS employees "are discouraged from flagging potentially fraudulent ITIN applications."
The IRS issued a statement in response to the report that said in part the agency has recognized issues with the ITIN process and that top officials are have "moved quickly and aggressively to address issues that were identified." |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 6:00 PM Email to a friend |
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