Posted on 04/17/2009 11:46:05 AM PDT by freespirited
Abuse is rampant in the collection of fraudulent income tax refunds from the IRS, especially by illegal immigrants -- according to a new report to be released by the Social Contract Press on April 14.
The 51-page report, The Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration: A Study in Fraud, Abuse, and Liberal Activism, by financial analyst and economist Edwin Rubenstein, will be released at a News Conference at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at the National Press Club (529 14th St., NW, 13th floor) in Washington, D.C.
"The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest anti-poverty program in the United States -- and the most illegal-immigrant friendly," explains Edwin Rubenstein, author of the new report. "In 2007, more than 23 million households received more than $47 billion in the EITC payments -- and between one-quarter to one-third of all EITC claims were 'improperly paid' according to the General Accounting Office."
According to the report, much of the so-called "tax relief" goes to people who never paid a cent in taxes, and may have already defrauded the government of huge sums each year. "EITC scams are common, well-organized, and massive," Rubenstein writes in the report. EITC ranks second out of 57 government programs in fraudulent payments. Only Medicare reported a larger dollar amount.
Public policy expert, James R. Edwards, Jr., said "EITC has become yet another means of depriving hard-working Americans of their own resources. It robs some to give to others. This is exactly the kind of so-called 'tax relief' Obama talked about during the campaign and in his sales job for his economic stimulus bill. Obama is redistributing wealth via the tax code and misleading the public by calling it tax cuts. Rather it's welfare by other means," Mr. Edwards said.
The EITC is the most accessible of the major entitlement programs and used by more people than food stamps and welfare (TANF)* combined.
The complete report, The Earned Income Tax Credit and Illegal Immigration: A Study in Fraud, Abuse, and Liberal Activism, will be available at the Social Contract Press website, www.thesocialcontract.com.
The SOP solution: amnesty.
/s off.
If they can’t speak english, I doubt they can read it. Who is aiding these criminals?
That is because Citizens are not “guests” like these honest and upstanding “guest-workers” are. Citizens must be kept in line, quite forcefully otherwise they might start to doubt the magnanimosity and benevolence of the government.
[/sarc][/cynic]
Abuse is rampant in the collection of fraudulent income tax refunds from the IRS, especially by illegal immigrants ...
I’m shocked....not!
After seeing Geithner get confirmed as head IRS dude should they be surprised at all? The federal government has just turned the collection of taxes into a giant Easter Egg Hunt with one simple message.
CHEAT ... take what you can.
Be careful in complaining about illegal activity by illegal aliens...DHS might come after you.
Heck, a goodly fraction are illiterate in two languages...
This fraud is perpetrated by ACORN and illegals getting special border protection from foreign government and home domestic proto-terror states protected by a class of lawyers.
This is serious line crossing because it means that we can see a clear border foreign aid parallel violations by illegals and ACORN folkes getting together, much like islamo sleeper cells. It’s a clear case of custodial rearrangement and civil war.
Let me guess... they all used TurboTax?
In fact, the most audited returns are those with Schedule C (Self Employment Income) and claim the Earned Income Tax Credit.
It's like shooting fish in a barrel for an auditor: disallow a couple of expenses, and voila!, away goes much of the EITC, plus penalties and interest.
Being semi-retired, I worked for a well known tax preparation service one year. I decided to not go back because I didn’t want to be a party to fraud in any way.
Returns are prepared based on the information provided by the client. At times it was obvious that the info provided to qualify for EITC was bogus. But a person who’d earned $12 - $20,000 and could claim a couple of dependents could easily walk out with $4,000 - $5,000 in EITC.
I’d guess half the clients that I dealt with who claimed EITC were providing false information. And some were probably illegal aliens, and some were clearly citizens. It was not the role of the tax preparer to root out the fraud, and that’s probably as it should be.
I feel a little naive here. Don’t you need a SSN to get EIC? Wouldn’t some fancy computer use the SSN to verify age requirements are met? Don’t you also need a w-2, proving that you actually earned income?
I’ve been amazed at the IRS’s ability to mechanically audit returns. Earlier this week, somebody here mentioned that the IRS found an incorrect 1099 entry, for example. How can they find all this stuff...but not be able to prevent large scale EIC fraud?
Who wants to bet this kind of tax theft is a yawn for liberals - they're too busy going after their fellow citizens who happen to be conservatives. Why bother with real crimes when you can imply that conservatives are terrorists?
“Returns are prepared based on the information provided by the client. At times it was obvious that the info provided to qualify for EITC was bogus. But a person who’d earned $12 - $20,000 and could claim a couple of dependents could easily walk out with $4,000 - $5,000 in EITC.”
Ok, I’m really showing my ignorance here. Don’t you have to give the SSN for any dependents claimed? Is there some work around, where you fill out a form saying you never got the kid a SSN. Haven’t SSN’s been required for a few decades now, meaning that the vast majority of children of dependent age would have a SSN.
It just seems like the IRS must be turning a blind eye to this...because surely they would recognize the signs of fraud.
Who wants to bet this kind of tax theft is a yawn for liberals - they're too busy going after their fellow citizens who happen to be conservatives. Why bother with real crimes when you can imply that conservatives are terrorists?
Who wants to bet they go after more conservatives for tax issues than the out and out illegal crooks? Bet on it.
The knowledge of how to obtain EITC fraudulently is just "out there". I expect people who know little else about the tax code have learned that much. I worked in tax preparation one year, and was surprised over and over at how "prepared" those claiming EITC were, and how eager. So what if they were occasionally confused about whether an uncle or cousin qualified as a dependent.
I'd bet that the ways to cheat on Medicare, Food Stamps and other programs are just "out there" also.
you can get the form in spanish
Oh yeah, I forgot for a moment that the libs added that to our services to these criminals.
This is somewhat unrelated; but, it reminds me of a gripe that I have. One day I was at a gas station, and the young woman behind the counter was telling her friend what she was going to buy with her tax refund...almost bragging about how big it was.
Well, when a twenty something single mother gets a check that equals half her annual income, it can only be one thing: EIC.
I felt like screaming at her “You didn’t get a REFUND, you got Workfare”. I don’t want to argue the merits of EIC; but, I want people who get EIC to know what they are getting. This same woman has probably been class baited into voting for Democrats, so there would be ‘no tax cuts for the rich’.
Therefore, if I were king for a day, all high school seniors would be taught how to fill out a freakin tax return. It will save them from wasting money paying somebody else to do it. And, it will help them figure out whether they actually pay taxes.
King for a second day...no automatic withholding, make it more real - write a check on April 15.
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