Prisoners get millions from IRS in bogus refund claims, watchdog finds
Monday, December 15th, 2014 @ 4:17PM
Published November 29, 2014
FoxNews.com
Hundreds of thousands of prisoners are filing phony tax refund claims and the IRS is not doing enough to quash the problem, according to a watchdog report.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) said in its report Tuesday that refund fraud associated with prisoner Social Security numbers is a “significant problem” for the tax agency that is only getting worse over time.
According to the report, more than 137,000 phony tax returns were filed in 2012 using a prisoner’s Social Security number to the tune of $1 billion. While many of the fake refunds were flagged and prevented by the agency, the IRS issued $70 million in bogus refunds.
This was a significant increase from 2007, when more than 37,000 fake tax returns were filed for amounts equaling $166 million.
Posted by Robert Strait
Categories: Online articles
