IG: IRS paid $6 billion in bogus child tax credits
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS paid at least $6 billion in child tax credits in 2013 to people who weren't eligible to receive them, a government investigator said Tuesday.
Payments went to families that mistakenly claimed the tax credit or claimed the wrong amount, as well as taxpayers who committed fraud, according to an audit by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
The audit highlights problems with a tax credit that President Barack Obama has championed as a way to help low-income working families.
Obama's 2009 economic stimulus package temporarily expanded the credit to more families that don't make enough money to pay federal income tax. The expanded credit expires at the end of 2017.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a4e7140ab8864d57925fa97bd963233b/ig-irs-paid-6-billion-bogus-child-tax-credits
= new reply since forum marked as read
The inspector general's report estimates that taxpayers improperly claimed between $5.9 billion and $7.1 billion in child tax credits that year. The report, however, does distinguish between fraud and credits that were claimed by mistake.
