Thread: IRS told employees to ignore potential fraud in program used by immigrants

By Stephen Dinan

The Washington Times

Wednesday, August 8, 2012



IRS supervisors ignored employees who tried to warn agency higher-ups of fraud in a program designed to collect taxes from immigrants, resulting in the agency paying out potentially bogus refunds.

The Treasury inspector general for tax administration said the IRS even eliminated some methods employees had used to figure out questionable refund requests, and that the agency doesn’t have the ability to verify applicants’ identity or foreign status.

Investigators “found an environment which discourages employees from detecting fraudulent applications,” said J. Russell George, the inspector general.

The IRS pays out $6.8 billion in refunds to taxpayers who file using Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs), who are generally immigrants, here both legally and illegally. The amount of fraud was not stated.

The agency said it has put new checks in place to try to crack down on fraud, with employees getting training from the Homeland Security Department on how to verify documents when an immigrant applies for an ITIN.

But the IRS disputed the inspector general’s assumption that fraud is rampant in many of the cases where taxpayers are using the same addresses for multiple applications.

“While this is one of many risk factors for fraud, it is also the case that some taxpayers list the address of the tax-return preparer to ensure that any future correspondence from the IRS is received. The IRS is analyzing this issue in more detail as it conducts its review of the ITIN program,” the agency said.

The auditors took a closer look at fraud after being prompted by senators, who said they’d heard complaints from IRS employees that their warnings were being ignored.

Mr. George confirmed that, saying IRS supervisors were urging employees to turn their backs on potential fraud from identity theft.

“This report is shocking,” said Rep. Charles Boustany, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees the IRS. “It’s one thing if the IRS tries to catch fraud and fails, but it’s quite another when management apparently takes steps to weaken program integrity.”

IRS told employees to ignore potential fraud in program used by immigrants - Washington Times

"Mr. George confirmed that, saying IRS supervisors were urging employees to turn their backs on potential fraud from identity theft."

Those supervisors should be fired immediately.

ADDED TO ALIPAC HOMEPAGE News with amended title ..

http://www.alipac.us/content.php?r=8...-by-immigrants

We are all aware, aren't we, that those orders being given to the IRS employees are coming directly from the top! That treasonist brood of vipers in OUR White House continues unabated to work overtime to undermine the soverignty of this Republic....and nothing happens! Every so often, I read online that Impeachment proceedings are underway....and again, nothing seems to come of it! I do NOT understand how this ARROGANT Resident and his minions keep getting away with their blatant lawlessness, corruption and down right treason without so much as an investigation by members of OUR Congress! Is there anybody on Capital Hill with a backbone?? Congressional members keep giving themselves raises and taking vacations, but can't seem to get it together enough to make some waves where it counts! They are being entrusted with defending our Constitution, but while it has been under attack for the last four years (at least), nobody even raises an eyebrow! What is it going to take?? America is being invaded by a foriegn power 24/7 completely UNABATED....even with the full support of this treasonist administration; when certain border states try to stem the tide and protect their borders, they are attacked and sued by the fed!! REALLY?? America is a Republic which is OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people...and it is THE PEOPLE who now need to stand up and take the initiative to save OUR Constitution, reestablish our soverignty and restore this great Republic once and for all!!

Welcome Thaaf! Well said. I agree it appears no one in Congress has a backbone and instead they have been bought. I sincerely hope that Americans wake up before it is too late to turn the tide. It is incumbent upon us all to continue to spread the word and get others involved in saving the land.

RELATED STEALING AMERICANS BLIND News ...


MICHIGAN - Hispanic leader: go after tax preparers

Fake kids, false claims cost billions

Her federal 2010 tax return reads like fiction -- written, she said, by a Grand Rapids tax preparer to help get her a much bigger federal tax return. And, it's now gotten her in trouble with the IRS.

This woman is a native of Central America who didn't want to be identified because she has been living in the United States illegally for more than 16 years.

She told Target 8 that she supplied the fake name and fake Social Security number -- the name and number of a woman whose parents she knows. It's the same name she uses at her $32,000-a-year factory job.

"That's a borrowed Social Security number," she said.

More evidence of public apathy being destructive to our republic's ideals. I began alerting at the workplace in the late 1970's that the Mexican labor supply would be destructive. People dismissed my opinion, called me alarmist, radical. I objected to amnesty, reactions to my suggestions were yet similar. We are where we are because of decades of publilc apathy. We cannot bring major change for the betterment of USA without changing the attitude of Congress. Constant re-election of Congress members only fuels their self-importance and assumptions of grandiose power. For instance, who objected to unlimited super-pac campaign spending? That was a power play, now I hear displeasure from a few members of both parties over that. It really accentuates the adage, "all politics are local." It does not get more local than the individual voter, voting from an informed/educated attitude! Apathy has led us to where we are. If we want to have a winning team, the players of today are not the answer, we need to upgrade members of the team, maybe the entire team.

This happened on Douglas Schulman's watch at the same time anything that wasn't a socialist/progressive "group" was being targeted by the IRS. It was all political.

Where is Douglas Schulman now?

From 2008 to October 2012.
Commissioner of Internal Revenue Douglas H. Shulman

Douglas H. Shulman is the 47th Commissioner of Internal Revenue. As Commissioner, he presides over the nation's tax system, which collects approximately $2.4 trillion in tax revenue that funds most government operations and public services. Shulman manages an agency of about 100,000 employees and a budget of more than $12 billion. The agency touches every facet of American society, including individual taxpayers, the tax-exempt sector, small businesses and large corporations.

As Commissioner, Shulman has emphasized the necessity of maintaining a balance between taxpayer service and tax enforcement. His goals for the IRS are improving service to make voluntary compliance easier for taxpayers while at the same time enforcing the law to make sure everyone meets their obligation to pay the taxes they owe.

During Commissioner Shulman's tenure, the IRS played a major role in the economic recovery efforts by delivering about $300 billion — or 40% of the money of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — through the tax system as well as by designing IRS programs to assist individuals and businesses struggling through difficult economic times. In the face of increasing globalization of tax administration, Shulman has stepped up IRS activity on a variety of international tax issues, including offshore tax evasion. He has served as the Chair of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Forum on Tax Administration since 2009. He has also led an effort to reshape the relationship with corporate taxpayers, by focusing on issue resolution, certainty and transparency. Also under Shulman's direction, the IRS launched the Return Preparer Initiative to ensure high standards of ethics and service across the tax preparation industry.
During his tenure, Commissioner Shulman has focused on employee engagement and performance. Under his leadership, the Agency has jumped from 8th to 3rd out of the 14 largest agencies in the federal government-wide Best Places to Work in Government survey. Also during his tenure, the IRS embarked on and is scheduled to finish a major modernization of IRS’s core technology account database which will achieve the goal IRS set in 1988 to process all tax returns on a daily cycle, rather than weekly batch cycle, which leads to significant improvement in customer service and compliance activities. Other major initiatives launched during his tenure include expanded use of data analytics to enhance service and compliance, and shifting the agency to resolve taxpayer issues at the earliest possible time.
Commissioner Shulman came to the IRS from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the private-sector regulator of all securities firms doing business in the United States, where he served as Vice Chairman. He served in the same role at the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) before its 2007 consolidation with New York Stock Exchange Member Regulation, which resulted in the formation of FINRA. After joining NASD in 2000, Commissioner Shulman played an integral role in restructuring the company, led the negotiations of the sale of the NASDAQ stock market and American Stock Exchange, oversaw the launch of industry-wide bond market transparency and modernized NASD's technology operations.
Earlier in his career, Commissioner Shulman helped to co-found Teach for America, was involved with several start-up organizations, was a vice president of a private investment firm and served as Senior Policy Advisor and then Chief of Staff of the National Commission on Restructuring the Internal Revenue Service.

Commissioner Shulman holds a B.A. from Williams College, an M.P.A. from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 29-Jan-2013

Wow! Good find to bring back to the top Newmexican. This IRS scandal is crazy!

In the last six months someone has been trying to use our ss#....we had to put fraud alerts on credit reports got new bank cards four times.......it's pissing me off!

As for Obama being brain dead on all scandals, someone needs to say mr president you know nothing saw nothing but I bet you know where you're Rapper pal is and what They had for dinner..heck you know when to plan a party a trip a golf day but You don't Know a dam thing what's going on in you're own house!