As Many As 1.2 Million Illegals Fraudulently Using SSN’s of U.S. Citizens |

Illegal immigrants are fraudulently using stolen Social Security numbers of U.S. citizens to get jobs and then filing tax returns in their own names with assigned Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) to claim refunds. But neither the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), nor the Social Security Administration (SSA), has procedures in place to warn taxpayers that someone else is working under their Social Security number.

A new report by the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration estimates that 1.2 million ITIN tax returns filed in 2007 reported wages earned by taxpayers who used another taxpayer’s Social Security Number. ITINs are numbers assigned by the IRS and intended to provide tax identification numbers for immigrants who have tax filing obligations but don’t qualify for Social Security numbers, which generally are only issued to U.S. citizens and people legally admitted to the U.S.

Income reported by an employer on a stolen Social Security number can result in tax complications for the legitimate Social Security number holder. And when someone steals the Social Security number of a senior, the earnings can subject that senior’s Social Security benefits to reductions from earnings that are over the limits, and a greater portion of Social Security benefits could become taxable. Seniors could get a notice from the IRS demanding more tax on this “unreported income.â€