Treasury Inspector General for tax administration, J. Russell George, spoke with FBN’s Neil Cavuto and said that eight months after the Obama administration introduced its plan to help spur the weak housing market – his team has uncovered cases of US citizens and IRS employees “illegally or inappropriately” claiming credits for first time homebuyers program. Some Americans have even used children as young as age 4 to defraud the government of the housing credit program that expires Nov. 30.
According to a new report released Thursday from the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, the $8K tax credit for first-time homebuyers program lacked important rules and requirements in its early implementation that have contributed to potential fraud.
The [IRS] “did not require taxpayers to provide documentation to substantiate the purchase of a home,” according to the report.
The report found that more than $600 million worth of tax credit claims were questionable.
Below are excerpts from the interview: Courtesy of Fox Business News
On illegal activity in the IRS:
“My auditors have uncovered incidents of a minimum of 53 IRS employees who apparently illegally or inappropriately claimed credits for first time homebuyers.”
“Those cases have been referred to my office of investigations so they are active investigations. In all honesty this is an interim report. I expect that the number would be much larger than that number.”
“You pointed out earlier of people under the age of 18, 4 year olds claiming this credit. Contract law generally prevents anyone under the age of 18 from engaging in that kind of legal binding. Yet you have many, many, at least 600 employees and taxpayers who benefit from this.”
“The bottom line is the IRS did not follow recommendations my office gave to them almost a year ago.”
