One of our readers alerted me to a money sieve that is apparently ignored and veiled by that agency of deceit and derision, the IRS. The program is ITIN, acronym for Individual Tax Identification Number.
According to the government website, this number is issued to wage earners who don’t qualify for social security numbers (SSN). Aliens, undocumented, documented, living in the USA and not living in the USA qualify. Bob Segall of WTHR Channel 7, Indianapolis, IN reported information about loopholes in the ITIN provisions.
In his 2012 report updated in 2016, Segall reports that the loophole is the ‘Additional Child Tax Credit’ that allows credit up to $1,000 per ‘additional child.’ Here is where the abuse and fraud take hold; Segall interviewed a Hispanic alien living in a house in Indiana, an address where four tax returns were sent to the IRS claiming refunds for 20 children. One child lived in the house and 19 lived in Mexico and had never visited the US. The children were listed as nieces and nephews; taxpayers contributed $29,608 to their subsistence.
Are we taxpayers appropriately incensed or do we think that the IRS should ignore repeated warnings by Russell George, Inspector General for Tax Administration that the system is being abused? Do we feel it is reasonable that the IRS should authorize fraudulent payments of $4.2 billion of tax money annually?
When Chief Investigative Reporter Segall called the IRS for an interview he was told that none of the approximately 90,000 IRS employees could speak with him.
As many of us may painfully remember, Mr. Obama signed the bill for federal government to take over the student loan program in 2010. Over the past six years, student loans have risen to about $100 billion annually for a total of $1.2 trillion. At least 25% ($300 billion) of this debt is delinquent.
This administration has been seeking ways to create forgiveness by student debtors. Keep in mind that some students took an array of courses to avoid the challenges of work while others have graduated with degrees in coursework for which there is little to no demand. Still others had no affinity for college level study and knowledge retention.
Some for-profit colleges may be forced into bankruptcy with meager resources to pay student claims of enrollment based on alleged false assertions about job placement and graduation rates. Class action suits are being readied by patronizing trial lawyers that will replace delinquent student loans with government guarantees costing taxpayers billions.
The answer is simple; the hoard of taxpayer funds is endless. (Current national debt is $19.1 trillion with current budget deficit of $486 billion.)
Another conduit to picking the pockets and purses of taxpayers: ‘Electric’ cars, especially Tesla models made in Palo Alto, CA by a company headed by billionaire Elon Musk. Electric cars produced by Tesla receive a federal tax credit of $7,500 with additional state credits of $2,500 in CA and an amazing $6,000 in Colorado. In California and nine other states these vehicles also qualify for resalable ZEV credits (Zero emissions vehicles). The Los Angeles Times estimated the accumulated ZEV credits at $35,000 per car. Taxpayers are paying to keep Tesla afloat while also paying customers to buy their cars.
A recent headline in the Wall Street Journal trumpeted this on the front page: “Where Did $110 Billion Go?” Leading banks were fined $109.96 billion that spawned the spark that ignited the recession that wafted rapidly through the world economies in 2008.
The culprit was bundled (securitized) mortgages attached to many unqualified buyers that couldn’t even make the first payment. While nearly half the funds have provided consumer relief, the housing market remains cautious, more than a million homeowners still face foreclosure and billions of dollars was flushed into the vortex of government inscrutability.
What you have been reading is not waste but fraud. These squandered and ‘lost’ billions of dollars are just a trickle in the gusher of government deceit, dishonesty and double-dealing. We are training aliens to defraud the system, we are leading students toward the government trough of dependence and government is failing in its inaugural promise of fidelity to taxpayers by linking government elites with corporate welfare recipients.
Dick Baynton