IRS paid billions of dollars in improper refunds, report says

[alp227]

Source: Washington post

The Internal Revenue Service issued more than $11 billion in faulty refunds through its Earned Income Tax Credit last year, according to an inspector general’s report released this week.

Treasury Department Deputy Inspector General Michael Mc­Kenney found that the IRS has failed for the past two years to comply with a federal law requiring agencies to reduce payment errors to a rate of less than 10 percent. President Obama signed the statute in 2010.

The IRS estimates that at least 21 percent of its EITC payments in 2012 were faulty. That rate represented a decline compared with the previous nine years, but the total value for improper payments increased about 22 percent over that same period to at least $11.6 billion in 2012, according to the inspector general’s report.

The Earned Income Tax Credit awards tax refunds to low-income working individuals and families, especially those with children. The report said the IRS uses unreliable processes to assess the risk of improper payments through the program.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/irs-paid-billions-of-dollars-in-improper-refunds-report-says/2013/04/24/428b5ade-ad08-11e2-b6fd-ba6f5f26d70e_story.html

[htuttle]

1. Oh, sure, the poor people taking EIC credits for their meager tax refunds are the problem

Not those bazllionaires skating US tax law, of course not.

Sounds like the old Welfare Cadillac again...

[Sekhmets Daughter]

2. My son sent me the report this morning...

He's a tax attorney. Yesterday he sent me something talking about the cuts to IRS employees, including those responsible for collecting taxes. We've been keeping the IRS understaffed for years and years...this is the result.

[bloomington-lib]

3. 11.6 billion? What about the 181 billion lost through corporate tax breaks?

Companies slide $181B through tax loopholes
While most Americans are paying more, corporations are benefiting as never before from provisions that tilt steeply in their favor.
http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=c6550d4c-9741-4dcb-9614-ae499a4b3c23&ref=bfv



Keep paying attention to the left hand, while the right hand picks your pocket.

[customerserviceguy]

4. Refundable tax credits

are like dangling drugs in front of addicts. They invite theft, and they get it.

I was disappointed that these credits were renewed in the fiscal cliff deal. They need to go away, they're just paying people for breeding children that they can't really take care of.

[kestrel91316]

6. The earned income credit benefits ALL working poor,

whether they have children or not. Your comment is a hateful slap in the face to hardworking people LIKE ME who sometimes have a terrible year financially. Without the EIC, I'd have to pay a shockingly high income tax rate on the pittance I am taking home in this recession.

I'm not a thief, and I'm not a breeder, and I'm not an addict.

You, OTOH, are an ass.

[BlueCaliDem]

8. Bravo! Well said!

[customerserviceguy]

17. Are you trying to tell me

that you're in the top income tax bracket (or two) and the EIC alleviates that? Perhaps you have some specifics. Kids or no kids?

I didn't say that the people who took the EIC legally were addicts, I compared the thieves in the OP who fraudulently file dozens of tax returns to get many thousands of dollars addicts.

What would be wrong with tying the EIC specifically to reductions in withholdings on ACTUAL wages paid by an employer (we already do it, it's called advance EIC for those who participate) rather than hand out a bunch of big checks once a year?

[BlueCaliDem]

9. "they're just paying people for breeding children that they can't really take care of."

What an absolutely Right-wing thing to say. The EIC benefits the most vulnerable and impoverished among us, the very people the Rightwing hate with a passion. You should, instead, focus on the generous tax loopholes that multi-national corporations are getting, fleecing this country of $181 billion dollars a year, rather than going after the weak. That's just cowardly.

[customerserviceguy]

18. The way it is administered

it also provides a tempting target for fraudsters who file dozens of fake tax returns, and commit identity theft as well in pursuit of quickie refunds. I'm not in favor of refundable tax credits for corporations, either. We don't have enough money to fund either corporate greed or scamsters.

[Ash_F]

11. "they're just paying people for breeding children that they can't really take care of"

14k posts on Democraticunderground, ladies and gentlemen.

[BootinUp]

13. Maybe it was a joke

I can't wait for its next post.

[Ash_F]

16. Nope, this is DU in 2013

There are no more bastions of sanity on the internet. *If you know of one, pm me. I won't tell.*

[BootinUp]

12. You bought something hook line and sinker. nt

[customerserviceguy]

20. What I "bought"

was the fact that the EIC is a major source of fraud:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8984733.htm

There's been articles here at DU about it, too:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022177916

I remember the first time homebuyer tax credits in the waning Bush years, they were abused, too.

[brett_jv]

15. Wow, nothing about anchor babies?

I'm disappointed ...

[customerserviceguy]

21. They're for the purpose

of attempting to gain residency and citizenship. This is about fraudsters taking actual money. Do you think we can afford this?

[MrSlayer]

19. Wow! Really? The welfare queen argument?

We really have turned into the party of Reagan.

[Sunlei]

5. I know they just stopped sending out checks in some situtations.

For me, someone filed using my info for 2010.

Last year I got a letter from the IRS asking why I filed twice in 2010. They said they were withholding 'the check'. I think the IRS used to just send out checks and ask questions later.

All I did was make a copy of my 2010 return and write on it in bold text, this is a copy of the only 2010 return I filed, the other is a fraud. Thank God, I haven't heard from the IRS again

[midnight]

7. How can this be? I thought they are always right?

[BootinUp]

10. Execute the cheaters!

I am sure they bought a new car with that money!

Just another attempt to gin up some government hate, poor folk hate, etc.

[Ed Suspicious]

14. I entered a 1 instead of a seven on last years tax return resulting in an error in which the IRS

sent me $1800 dollars that didn't belong to me. I'm now paying it back plus penalties and interest. I wasn't a thief, just a careless typist in turbotax. I was shocked when I learned about the mistake. I wish it would not have happened because the extra money last year is long gone, but the future payback is going to be long and difficult.

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Well, that makes me feel

SO much better about the $3100 I had to SCRAPE UP to pay the IRS this year. When's the last time GE paid a tax bill, anyway?