Covered by AJ today:http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/08/us-usa-tax-tigta-idUSBRE8771PR20120808IRS allowed bogus taxpayer IDs: watchdog reportWASHINGTON | Wed
Aug 8, 2012 7:27pm EDT
(Reuters) -
The Internal Revenue Service has recently issued thousands of tax identification numbers to ineligible people and, in some cases, IRS managers condoned the practice, the tax collection agency's watchdog said on Wednesday.
The accusation by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, comes at a time of intense national debate about illegal immigrants, many of whom apply for and get taxpayer ID numbers instead of Social Security numbers.
After the report was released, a handful of Republican lawmakers slammed the IRS over its management of the
Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) program.
"The appalling management of the ITIN program is a clear example of failed leadership and the buck must stop with you," Republican Congressman Sam Johnson said in a letter to IRS commissioner Doug Shulman on Wednesday.
The IRS said in a statement it is reviewing the problem to make changes ahead of next year's tax filing season.
U.S. workers who are not citizens and do not have Social Security numbers can get an ID number from the IRS that they can use to file a tax return......
The IRS in 2011 processed more than 2.9 million tax returns with tax ID numbers and not Social Security numbers, TIGTA said.
These tax filings resulted in $6.8 billion of tax refunds....
An estimated 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants were living in the United States in 2010.
TIGTA said in a report last year that
individuals not authorized to work in the United States received $4.2 billion in refundable tax credits.
...
The IRS in June announced changes to the ID program in June, saying applicants must provide original documents, such as a passport or birth certificate, to get an ID number.
[ What did I post? ]Illegals Flocking to 3 states(WA,UT,NM) to get ID's
http://www.cis.org/articles/2002/back1202.pdfhttp://www.cis.org/articles/2002/back1202.htmlGiving Cover to Illegal Aliens - IRS Tax ID Numbers Subvert Immigration LawOctober 2002
Through its issuance of
Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITINs), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) appears to be blind or indifferent to the reality that it has:
created an official U.S. tax number that illegal aliens are using as identification, thereby making it easier for them to meld unnoticed into our society;
endangered homeland security by issuing ITINs to illegal aliens, without adequately ensuring that they are denied to terrorists, criminals on the FBI database, and those under deportation notices;
exceeded its traditional role as a tax receiver and processor by marketing the ITIN to illegal immigrant communities;
failed to provide adequate safeguards to prevent illegal aliens from receiving tax benefits to which they are not entitled;
subverted U.S. immigration laws by withholding information from the INS and SSA about fraudulent activity of illegal aliens;
provided an ID vehicle that advocates hope will be used to "regularize" illegal aliens; and
withheld from public review data that is relevant to determining the economic contribution of illegal aliens to U.S. society.
...
the
IRS, a division of the Treasury Department, is simultaneously working to provide illegal aliens with a U.S. government-issued identity number that obviates the need for a Social Security number. It is called the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN). Very little public information about these numbers has been made available, even though the
IRS began issuing them in July 1996, and over 5,500,000 of them have been issued.
Arizona FBI STATS . Illegalshttp://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_19_3/tsc_19_3_rubenstein_1.shtml
...
Illegal aliens soon realized they had nothing to fear, and lots to gain, from filing for the EITC. The stampede for ITINs was on:
Since 1996, the IRS has issued more than 14 million ITINs.
Annual issuance has exceeded 1 million in seven of the last eight years—a sure sign that the influx of illegal alien workers is larger than commonly believed.ITIN issuance spiked sharply in 1997, and fell dramatically in the next few years. The volatility stems from changes to EITC eligibility rules. Prior to 1998 taxpayers with ITINs were eligible for the credit.
The Clinton welfare reform law, in an effort to curb use by illegal aliens, required valid Social Security numbers.
As a result, since 1998 immigrants without SSNs, or whose EITC-qualifying children do not have SSNs, are not eligible for the credit—even if they have ITINs.
Despite this “crackdown,” the total number of tax returns claiming the EITC continued to rise. This could not have happened had illegals been shut out of the EITC program. Instead, they filed tax returns using bogus Social Security numbers (SSN).
The IRS makes it easy. The tax collection agency does little to verity the validity of SSNs, the existence of dependent children, or to ascertain that they have lived with the taxpayer for more than six months of the year as required by law. With relative impunity illegal aliens claim as dependents children still in Mexico. Illegal alien husbands and wives often file separate returns on which both claim the same kids.”| - - - -
Notice that since illegals have
Income Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs.) they are
"legally" employed by the employers with a wink wink nod nod..... http://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc_19_3/tsc_19_3_rubenstein_1.shtmlThe EITC and Fraud - Section 1
By Edwin S. Rubenstein Volume 19, Number 3 (Spring 2009) [ EITC - Earned Income Tax Credit ]
...
...
Illegal Aliens and the EITC The Internal Revenue Code does not prohibit illegal aliens from receiving the EITC if they meet the prescribed eligibility requirements. Foremost among them is filing a legitimate tax return.
Since 1996, the IRS has encouraged illegal aliens to file tax returns using
Income Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs.) At first, illegals were reluctant to apply, fearing the IRS would share the information with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) or its successor agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). But
illegals without ITINs found themselves shunned by employers.
Low-wage employers opted against paying illegals “off the books.” To them, the EITC was a valuable wage subsidy paid for by taxpayers. Illegals receiving the EITC were willing to work for less than their counterparts who did not file for the credit.
The decision by the IRS to make ITINs available to illegals was made solely to increase the likelihood that they would pay taxes—not to enforce the immigration laws. In its publications, website, and forms, the IRS makes clear that the ITIN is “for tax purposes only.”15
Illegal aliens soon realized they had nothing to fear, and lots to gain, from filing for the EITC. The stampede for ITINs was on:
Since 1996, the IRS has issued more than 14 million ITINs. Annual issuance has exceeded 1 million in seven of the last eight years—a sure sign that the influx of illegal alien workers is larger than commonly believed.
ITIN issuance spiked sharply in 1997, and fell dramatically in the next few years. The volatility stems from changes to EITC eligibility rules. Prior to 1998 taxpayers with ITINs were eligible for the credit. The Clinton welfare reform law, in an effort to curb use by illegal aliens, required valid Social Security numbers. As a result, since 1998 immigrants without SSNs, or whose EITC-qualifying children do not have SSNs, are not eligible for the credit—even if they have ITINs.
Despite this “crackdown,” the total number of tax returns claiming the EITC continued to rise. This could not have happened had illegals been shut out of the EITC program. Instead, they filed tax returns using bogus Social Security numbers (SSN).
The IRS makes it easy. The tax collection agency does little to verity the validity of SSNs, the existence of dependent children, or to ascertain that they have lived with the taxpayer for more than six months of the year as required by law. With relative impunity illegal aliens claim as dependents children still in Mexico. Illegal alien husbands and wives often file separate returns on which both claim the same kids.”
