Your tax dollar at work

Remember the government’s “first time home buyer” tax credit of $8000 designed to help the sluggish housing industry? Well, it seems that it has done far more than that.

Yesterday we learned from J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration, that more than 14,000 tax filers filed for and received the tax credit when they didn’t deserve it.  No big deal, you say?  Well, as it turns out, that more than $26.7 million in credits were obtained by people who didn’t deserve them.

An innocent mistake, you say…people just didn’t understand the tax forms?  Not exactly.  1300 prison inmates applied for and were granted the tax credit to the tune of more than $9 million

And, were that not enough to make your blood boil, George’s report also points out that,

[a] common scam had multiple taxpayers using the sale of a single home, with each claiming the credit.  One home was used by 67 tax filers

So, what does Representative John Lewis (D. Ga.), chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee have to say about this?

Last year, we learned that children and persons who did not purchase homes were fraudulently claiming the first-time homebuyer credit,… [a]lthough I am pleased that the fraud identified earlier does not continue, I am concerned about prisoners claiming the credit.

He’s concerned…that’s it?  Oh, heck, I forgot, it’s not his money.

Posted in

SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

8 Comments

  1. Tim-in-Alabama on June 24, 2010 at 10:48 am

    If I may offer a liberal Democrat response.

    This embarrassing situation would not have happened had these people not been in prison.



    • Dimsdale on June 24, 2010 at 11:38 am

      Don't worry, Øbama will probably give amnesty to everyone in the prisons too.   Gotta make room for the Tea Party folks….



  2. Dimsdale on June 24, 2010 at 11:37 am

    Just wait until this bumbling bunch gets their hands on that $20 billion from BP.  There will be sheepdogs in Minnesota getting a piece of the pie.



  3. DuffTerrall on June 24, 2010 at 5:08 pm

    What do you mean "not his money" SoS? Rep. Knollenberg already established that it's not ours, so seems to me it is the governments, right?



  4. Gerry-M on June 24, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    Is this why legitimate home buyers like my son who bought a house in November and applied for the tax credit still has not received it? Maybe he would get it quicker if he was in prison.



    • mathlady on June 25, 2010 at 1:40 am

      Gerry-

      Same problem here. We closed on our home in December, and have been informed by the IRS that we shouldn't expect our tax credit check until maybe September. Makes we wonder how these crooks got theirs so fast.



  5. Murphy on June 25, 2010 at 3:57 am

    1300 prison inmates, they're just supporting their key voting blocks.



    • Dimsdale on June 25, 2010 at 9:37 am

      The bulk of criminals, convicted or not, are Democrats.



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