Agency supervisors told employees to ignore red flags!
The IRS has paid out as much as $5.2 billion in fraudulent tax refunds to immigrants, and ignored employees who tried to warn agency higher-ups of its mistakes, according to a new audit released Wednesday by the agency’s inspector general.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said identity theft fraud could cost the government $21 billion over the next five years unless the IRS takes steps to crack down on the bogus use of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) which are issued to immigrants — legal and illegal — in lieu of Social Security numbers, so they can pay taxes.
“TIGTA found an environment which discourages employees from detecting fraudulent applications,” said J. Russell George, the inspector general.
IRS officials said they have already taken some steps to try to combat identity theft fraud, and disputed the potential $21 billion cost to taxpayers.
The auditors took a closer look at fraud after being prompted by senators, who said they’d heard complaints from IRS employees that their warnings were being ignored.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
