red states rule
06-23-2010, 06:33 PM
As Dems tell us how taxes must go up due to budget deficits - we see how Dems are spending the tax dollars they are already taking from us
Love that hope and change
The Internal Revenue Service doled out more than $27 million in fraudulent claims for the home buyers' tax credit on returns for 2008, including claims by prisoners serving life sentences and people who purchased their home before the credit was in effect, a U.S. Treasury Department report said Wednesday.
The IRS paid out $9.1 million to 1,295 people who were in jail at the time they said they bought a home, and 241 of those prisoners were serving life sentences, according to the report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which monitors the Internal Revenue Service. On average, that's slightly more than $7,000 per prisoner.
Another $17.6 million went to 2,555 people who bought their homes before the tax credit became law--averaging out to about $6,890 per person.
In other fraudulent claims, the total cost of which the Treasury inspector general wasn't yet able to quantify, the same home was claimed by more than one taxpayer. About 10,280 people got a tax credit for a home that also was used by another taxpayer to claim the credit, according to the report.
"This is very troubling," said J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general that oversees IRS activities. "While the IRS has taken a number of positive steps to strengthen controls and help prevent inappropriate credits from being issued, our audit found that additional controls are necessary to address erroneous claims for the credit."
In one case, 67 separate taxpayers claimed the credit on the same home. This type of fraud led the IRS to pay out "tens of millions of dollars" fraudulently, the report said.
What's more, at least 34 IRS employees were found to file claims "despite indications that they owned a home within the past three years," the report said. That's in addition to 53 IRS workers that the Treasury inspector general found filing fraudulent claims in 2009.
Congress created the first-time home-buyer provision--a refundable tax credit--in 2008 as in interest-free loan that taxpayers must pay back over 15 years. Lawmakers later removed the repayment requirement for subsequent home buyers and increased the maximum value of the credit. Congress also later expanded the tax break to include some people who weren't first-time buyers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100623-710839.html
Love that hope and change
The Internal Revenue Service doled out more than $27 million in fraudulent claims for the home buyers' tax credit on returns for 2008, including claims by prisoners serving life sentences and people who purchased their home before the credit was in effect, a U.S. Treasury Department report said Wednesday.
The IRS paid out $9.1 million to 1,295 people who were in jail at the time they said they bought a home, and 241 of those prisoners were serving life sentences, according to the report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which monitors the Internal Revenue Service. On average, that's slightly more than $7,000 per prisoner.
Another $17.6 million went to 2,555 people who bought their homes before the tax credit became law--averaging out to about $6,890 per person.
In other fraudulent claims, the total cost of which the Treasury inspector general wasn't yet able to quantify, the same home was claimed by more than one taxpayer. About 10,280 people got a tax credit for a home that also was used by another taxpayer to claim the credit, according to the report.
"This is very troubling," said J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general that oversees IRS activities. "While the IRS has taken a number of positive steps to strengthen controls and help prevent inappropriate credits from being issued, our audit found that additional controls are necessary to address erroneous claims for the credit."
In one case, 67 separate taxpayers claimed the credit on the same home. This type of fraud led the IRS to pay out "tens of millions of dollars" fraudulently, the report said.
What's more, at least 34 IRS employees were found to file claims "despite indications that they owned a home within the past three years," the report said. That's in addition to 53 IRS workers that the Treasury inspector general found filing fraudulent claims in 2009.
Congress created the first-time home-buyer provision--a refundable tax credit--in 2008 as in interest-free loan that taxpayers must pay back over 15 years. Lawmakers later removed the repayment requirement for subsequent home buyers and increased the maximum value of the credit. Congress also later expanded the tax break to include some people who weren't first-time buyers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100623-710839.html