Identity thieves could rake in $26 billion in tax refunds
Source: CNN
Criminals who file fraudulent tax returns by stealing people's identities could rake in an estimated $26 billion over the next five years because the IRS cannot keep up with the amount of the fraud, Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George said Tuesday.
"Our analysis found that, although the IRS detects and prevents a large number of fraudulent refunds based on false income documents, there is much fraud that it does not detect," said George's prepared testimony before a joint hearing of the House Ways and Means Subcommittees on Oversight and Social Security.
George's report is the first detailed analysis of the tax refund fraud problem, which could affect any legitimate taxpayer. His projection of $26 billion is larger than any other estimate of identity theft tax fraud.
Last year, according to the Treasury Inspector General's Office, the IRS reported that of the 2.2 million tax returns it found to be fraudulent, about 940,000 returns totaling $6.5 billion were related to identity theft. In its investigation, George said, auditors found another 1.5 million undetected tax returns with more than $5.2 billion in fraud.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/08/us/tax-refund-fraud/index.html
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That's (in part) what it's about, isn't it?
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