Posted by Jack
Is it possible that U.S. government and the IRS in particular is such a big, fat, incompetent and bloated bureaucracy with so much money that they don’t keep a close watch on where the tax money goes, as in waste, fraud and abuse? And is it possible that people we elect to fix problems in waste, fraud and abuse are so intimidated by the enormity of this task or are bought off by special interests, so that nothing of any consequence ever gets fixed?
The following is a hint at the correct answer:
in 2014 655 IRS refund checks were sent to the [same] address in Lithuania. Another 250 were sent to a [single] address in Singapore.
Over $5 billion in fraud was looted from the IRS coffers last year. It is estimated that about $21 billion will be lost to fraud over the next 5 years, due to gaping security holes in the IRS.
In another example, a single address in Lansing, Mich., that was used to file 2,137 separate tax returns netting more than $3.3 million in refunds to that one address. Three addresses in Florida, the epicenter of the identity theft crisis, filed more than 500 returns totaling more than $1 million in refunds for each address.
According to the latest study, there are potentially another 1.5 million undetected cases of thieves seeking refunds after assuming the identity of a dead person, child or someone else who normally wouldn’t file a tax return.
One might think that when the IRS changed to computers such crude fraud schemes were anticipated and that a security block in the system would halt delivery when more than 10 checks go to the same address or when the refund amount exceeds $500 to an overseas address. One would think it would be sent to the next security level for a verification of name, social security number and W2 or 1099 filings.
I’m not a professional in this field, but this just seems obvious. Conversely, it seems grossly stupid and irresponsible NOT TO DO IT. What has your Congressional Representative done to fix this critical problem? What has your Senator done? Well, why don’t you ask them?