Illegal alien workers getting tax deductions for kids living in Mexico

Loophole. [Correction below] Illegal aliens working in the United States are technically required to fill out a tax return and pay their income taxes. We all laugh about claiming a additional deduction here or there for some neighborhood kid who eats the food out of your fridge and hangs out at your house all the time, but many of these workers are claiming deductions for children living in Mexico.

From WBIW in Indiana.

Each spring, at tax preparation offices all across the nation, many illegal immigrants are now eagerly filing tax returns to take advantage of a tax loophole, using their ITIN numbers to get huge refunds from the IRS.

The loophole is called the Additional Child Tax Credit. It’s a fully-refundable credit of up to $1000 per child, and it’s meant to help working families who have children living at home.

But many undocumented workers are claiming the tax credit for kids who live in Mexico – lots of kids in Mexico.

“We’ve seen sometimes 10 or 12 dependents, most times nieces and nephews, on these tax forms,” the whistleblower said. “The more you put on there, the more you get back.”

“The magnitude of the problem has grown exponentially,” said Russell George, the United States Department of Treasury’s Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

And he says the IRS has known about the problem for years.

George has repeatedly warned the IRS that additional child tax credits are being abused by undocumented workers. In 2009, his office released an audit report that showed ITIN tax filers received about $1 billion in additional child tax credits. Last year, the inspector general released a new report showing the problem now costs American tax payers more than $4.2 billion.

“Keep in mind, we’re talking $4 billion per year,” he said. “It’s very troubling.”

What George finds even more troubling is the IRS has not taken action despite multiple warnings from the inspector general.

“Millions of people are seeking this tax credit who, we believe, are not entitled to it,” said the inspector general. “We have made recommendations to [IRS] as to how they could address this, and they have not taken sufficient action in our view to solve the problem.”

Of course not, to do so would be considered raaaaaacist.

Correction: This is not a loophole, which is totally legal. In fact, this is tax fraud.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

6 Comments

  1. JBS on May 2, 2012 at 9:29 am

    $1,ooo each child, divided into $4.2 billion, let’s see, cancel three zeros (I wish!), and, that means there are: 4.2 million children (4,200,000) being claimed by illegal aliens?

    Not a problem, huh? Their numbers. WOW! ? WOW! ? Holy Cow, Wow!
    ?



  2. Dimsdale on May 2, 2012 at 10:26 am

    The IRS recently hired over 16K new “agents” and even more recently to deal with ?bamacare.
    ?
    How about using a few of those to go after these multiple tax cheats and felons?? Where is all the waste control we are continually promised??



    • GdavidH on May 2, 2012 at 6:47 pm

      Waste control?

      You mean recycling??



  3. RJH825 on May 2, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    Just another example of why a flat tax would be? the most equitable. ? Of course, that would mean? everyone would pay their fair share and we know how that goes over. Don’t we?



  4. Tim-in-Alabama on May 2, 2012 at 7:07 pm

    People who ripoff the government – from poor to rich – share tips on how to do it within their network.



  5. stinkfoot on May 5, 2012 at 8:06 pm

    Since the primary objective of the IRS is revenue and not justice it makes a twisted bit of sense to not waste time pursuing illegal immigrants… errr… I mean undocumented voters when the fraudulent refunds will not end up in a bank account inside our borders- but be kept in cash form or likely end up outside the country and outside the agency’s reach…?? it likely figures its time is better spent pursuing cheats who have a social security number as well as bank accounts and assets associated with it.? Besides, with this sudden move to have same day voter registration one would think that being too aggressive among the unofficial new constituency of the current regime (having alienated much of the old) might prevent an additional four years to be conferred in order that the private sector can be further looted under the guise of economic justice to be unleashed at straw men millionaires and billionaires while the real target for huge tax increases, the working class, collapses under the new burden of a greatly expanded bureaucracy it cannot afford.



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