Tampa Police: Majority of Tax Refund Fraud Committed by Those on Public Assistance

Some abuse the system and believe society owes them a living. Typically they always vote for Democrats.

From TampaBay.com:

…Tampa police estimate that 80 to 90 percent of the tax refund fraud they encounter is committed by people on public assistance.

“The people who are benefiting most from our taxes are the ones doing it,” said police spokeswoman Andrea Davis.

Tampa led the nation in refund fraud last year, with thieves duping the IRS out of $468 million. That’s according to a recent analysis by a federal watchdog agency, which put the national loss at $5.2 billion. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said it detected characteristics of refund fraud in 88,724 paid Tampa returns.

No one can say with certainty who took all the money.

But police know where they find the evidence.

Routinely, they see signs of tax fraud commingled with indicators of food assistance, rent assistance, Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income disability checks.

Little hard data exists on a crime only recently entering the public consciousness. But the estimate of 80 to 90 percent is the consensus of a Tampa police attorney and three detectives who specialize in the cases, including Sal Augeri, who testified about fraud in March before a U.S. Senate subcommittee.

Sheriff’s deputies, too, have witnessed an overlap.

“We do believe that a large number of people committing this crime are on public assistance,” said Hillsborough sheriff’s Cpl. Bruce Crumpler.

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Inspector General Report: IRS Turns Blind Eye to “Non-US Citizens” Committing Tax Fraud

Well, I guess since it’s an election year, Obama must continue to reward criminals in ever way he possible can. First he used an executive order to stop the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. Now we learn that under Obama, the IRS is allowing “non-US citizens” to commit tax fraud and actually dismantled a group designed to stop this particular type of fraud.

We know, Obama loves his taxcheats.

From The Hill:

The IRS showed more interest in processing applications for a taxpayer identification number than in vetting those requests for fraud, according to a federal audit publicly released Wednesday.

The revenue service’s review of applications for Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) was lacking and there was no reason to believe the IRS uncovered as much fraud as it could, the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration found.

Russell George, the tax administration inspector general, said that those findings were “troubling.” ITINs are given to non-U.S. citizens, who are ineligible for a Social Security Number, for tax purposes, and can even be used by people not eligible to be in the United States.

The inspector general “found an environment which discourages employees from detecting fraudulent applications,” George said in a statement.

The IRS has said that it has already started to beef up its oversight of ITIN applications and will continue to make improvements.

But GOP lawmakers slammed the agency’s handling of the issue, with one senior House Republican — Rep. Sam Johnson (Texas) — calling for the resignation of the IRS commissioner, Doug Shulman.

In all, the IRS processed some 2.9 million returns with ITINs in 2011, to the tune of roughly $6.8 billion in refunds. The inspector general report does not say what percentage of those returns or refunds were fraudulent, and IG officials have said that figure would be difficult to figure out.

The report found the IRS had scrapped a program that looked to sniff out potential ITIN fraud and did not spend enough time training employees on how to look for signs of fraud.

…The inspector general’s report found, among other things, that single addresses in both Phoenix and Dallas were used for more than 15,000 ITIN applications, and that more than 150 mailing addresses in all were used more than 1,000 times.

One address in Atlanta was used for almost 24,000 ITIN tax refunds in 2011, for a total amount of $46.4 million.

The report also found that agency officials split up a team that was focused on finding possible fraud schemes among ITIN applications after it helped identify more than $43 million in erroneous refunds.

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Taxpayer Alert: Millions “Mistakenly” Take Education Tax Credit Via Obama’s Stimulus

More fraud brought to the U.S. taxpayers via Obama’s stimulus. Obama can’t even stop the fraud and waste that come from his own laws. More redistribution of wealth at the expense of the American taxpayers.

FromWaPo:

Millions of American taxpayers may have erroneously claimed an education tax credit last year that is designed to provide relief as part of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus program, according to a new federal watchdog report disputed by the Internal Revenue Service.

More fraud from Obama’s stimulus.

As many as 2.1 million taxpayers may have erroneously claimed a total of $3.2 billion by taking advantage of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which provides up to $2,500 in relief for college students paying tuition and related expenses. The tax credit, once known as the Hope Scholarship Credit, was expanded as part of the 2009 economic stimulus program.

Translation: 2.1 million filed fraudulent tax returns thanks to Obama’s stimulus.

According to a report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration set for release Thursday, 1.7 million taxpayers received $2.6 billion in education credits that appear to be erroneous based on IRS records.

How can this be? Obama promised to end the waste and fraud when he got elected.

More than 370,900 ineligible individuals also earned an estimated $550 million in credits despite not attending classes for the required amount of time or because they were ineligible postgraduate students, the report said. Another 63,700 taxpayers received $88.4 million in credits while also being claimed as a dependent or spouse on another person’s tax returns, it said.

All that wasted money could have been used to keep those all important teachers and first responders employed.

And — as is often the case with tax fraud — the report said 250 prisoners took advantage of the tax credit and erroneously earned a total of $255,879.

The IRS disputed the findings Wednesday, noting that some of the 1.7 million allegedly ineligible taxpayers could claim the credit without filing a tuition statement, known as Form 1098-T.

Just wait until they tackle all the fraud and waste in ObamaCare. The taxpayers will love how much money Obama and the IRS save them.

“We recognize that there will be incorrect claims and we will take steps to correct them,” IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said in an interview.

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Taxpayer Alert: IRS Audit show ‘Undocumented Workers’ received $4.2 Billion in Tax Refunds

I love how the uber-liberal Washington Post calls these criminals “undocumented workers.” American taxpayers continue to pay for these illegal leeches, who often work under the table to hide money from Uncle Sam and still receive tax credits and rebates due to the non-enforcement of immigration laws.

From WaPo:

The Internal Revenue Service allowed undocumented workers to collect $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits last year, a new audit says, almost quadruple the sum five years ago.

Although undocumented workersare not eligible for federal benefits, the report released Thursday by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration concludes that federal law is ambiguous on whether these workers qualify for a tax break based on earned income called the additional child tax credit.

If you’re here ILLEGALLY, you should not benefit from our tax system. PERIOD.

Taxpayers can claim this credit to reduce what they owe in taxes, often getting refunds from the government. The vagueness of federal law may have contributed to the $4.2 billion in credits, the report said.

The IRS said it lacks the authority to disallow the claims.

Wage earners who do not have Social Security numbers andare not authorized to work in the United States can use what the IRS calls individual taxpayer identification numbers. Often these result in fraudulent claims on tax returns, auditors found.

If they are not authorized to work how are they authorized to receive tax credits and rebates? These illegal immigrants are costing US taxpayers billions in supporting their criminal lifestyles.

Their data showed that 72 percent of returns filed with taxpayer identification numbers claimed the child tax credit.

This is due to all those anchor babies these ‘undocumented workers’ produce once illegally inside our borders. Time to end this unconstitutional action.

The audit recommended that the IRS seek clarification on the law and check the immigration status of filers with taxpayer indentificaion numbers.

Check immigration status? Does the IRS want to be sued by the Obama administration in the way they sued Arizona and Alabama for wanting to check immigration status?

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