Report finds widespread fraud in taxpayer ID program

A recently released report shows widespread tax fraud in connection with the federal government’s Individual Taxpayer Identification Number program.

The inspector general specifically said there were 154 mailing addresses that were used 1,000 or more times on applications, including 15,795 numbers assigned to a Phoenix address.

The inspector general also found 10 individual addresses were used for filing 53,994 tax returns and receiving $86.4 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

In addition, the Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration reports found 10 bank accounts received 23,560 tax refunds totaling more than $16 million -- including: 2,706 tax refunds issued to a single account totaling $7.3 million.

The IRS issued a statement in response to the report that said in part the agency has recognized issues with the ITIN process ...

~~~
April 26, 2012
Report: Tax loophole costs billions
Millions of illegal immigrants are getting a bigger tax refund than you. Eyewitness News shows a massive tax loophole that provides billions of dollars in tax credits to undocumented workers   ...  undocumented workers are not supposed to have a social security number. So for them to pay taxes, the IRS created what's called an ITIN, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number ...