IRS Paid Out 110 Billion in Improper Tax Credits

[Olgrey]

I used to work in taxes. Heard and seen so much that almost nothing surprises me about taxes any more. I heard an IRS auditor telling stories once about his experiences in dealing with people. When they started requiring a social security number to claim someone as a dependent; it seems that thousands and thousands of dependents nationwide disappeared from tax returns in that one year.

Before that when they tried to verify dependents by doing a home visits they often had more than one appointment in apartments and housing complexes and they found that many of the kids looked very familiar. They determined that the word had gotten around about the upcoming IRS visits and the kids from the first stop would leave out the back way and run to the next stop allowing the people there to have the necessary number of kids to prove their dependents.

It always rubbed me the wrong way to have a large single mother come in to have her taxes filed and find out that she might have worked very little and her only concern was how much she was going to get back. She had probably paid nothing and in some cases was getting thousands of dollars back. Our tax dollars at work creating whole generations of people who do not want to work.

[Hlleonard]

I'm sure fraud isn't confined to the lower end of the financial scale but thats just one thing on the tax return I never understood, thats the first time I have heard about the scuffling kids around but there are lots of stories about people claiming their dog, don't know anybody who actually did that but I'm sure somebody has tried.

[GeoFisher]

I'm sure fraud isn't confined to the lower end of the financial scale but thats just one thing on the tax return I never understood, thats the first time I have heard about the scuffling kids around but there are lots of stories about people claiming their dog, don't know anybody who actually did that but I'm sure somebody has tried.

Fraud exists everywhere...........from people claiming stuff they shouldn't, to "grey area" business expenses, to outright fraud with dependents.

I can honestly say I've NEVER, not ONCE "fraudulently" filed my taxes. Hell, I think I'm pretty much squeaky clean when it comes to that.

I generally file my own, and take advantage of every benefit I can using turbo tax.....Then I pay for the "audit" protection, to make sure all is GREEN..........if anything shows up "yellow", I tweak a little to make sure green.

That tweaking usually involved business type expenses, or gains, or whatever.........

I should also say that in 30 years of filing, I've only received a tax return maybe 5 of those years......and those 5 years were very, very recent with Tax Credits for College. Thanks to Clinton, I think . I should tweak my taxes a little more to ensure I get no money back, because I simply hate the fact that the Gubment gets to borrow my money INTEREST FREE for a dang year because I'm too lazy to fix it..... .

Later,

Geo

[Hlleonard]

Fraud exists everywhere...........from people claiming stuff they shouldn't, to "grey area" business expenses, to outright fraud with dependents.

I can honestly say I've NEVER, not ONCE "fraudulently" filed my taxes. Hell, I think I'm pretty much squeaky clean when it comes to that.

I generally file my own, and take advantage of every benefit I can using turbo tax.....Then I pay for the "audit" protection, to make sure all is GREEN..........if anything shows up "yellow", I tweak a little to make sure green.

That tweaking usually involved business type expenses, or gains, or whatever.........

I should also say that in 30 years of filing, I've only received a tax return maybe 5 of those years......and those 5 years were very, very recent with Tax Credits for College. Thanks to Clinton, I think . I should tweak my taxes a little more to ensure I get no money back, because I simply hate the fact that the Gubment gets to borrow my money INTEREST FREE for a dang year because I'm too lazy to fix it..... .

Later,

Geo

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I did that a good many years ago, it just never made sense to loan my money to uncle sam interest free....I do believe most americans file their taxes as fairly as they can but honesty isn't a trait some folks have a lot of.

[Tyme2fish]

I used to fill out a tax return for a niece on my wife's side of the family. Niece worked part time only and had a dependent child. Withholding would only be about $200.00 to $300.00 for the year,yet with EIC she would get a refund in the thousands. ??