Cheating To Get Kids Into College = Cheating The IRS

The title of this piece is not a fancy math problem.

It’s simply the equation for a bunch of highfalutin cheats getting caught. And, it’s all the buzz; wealthy parents paying enormous bribes to get their kids into good schools. And, now the IRS may get involved to make the cheats pay taxes on all that money that supposedly went to charitable organizations. At least two Senators are working hard to encourage the IRS to take the cheating parties to task.

According to a recent article on AccountingToday.com, “The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., are asking the Internal Revenue Service to crack down on the people involved in the recent college admissions scandal.”

We’re talking about millions, no, hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into a bogus tax-deductible foundation. Meanwhile regular hard-working taxpayers are being squeezed to pay taxes on their children’s basic needs. There’s something grossly wrong here and while so many of these cheating parties might have felt pretty smug about getting their brats into good schools, when something is rotten to the core it generally starts to stink and attract attention.

I’m all for people paying for their wrongdoing.

Hurrah for the two Senators for writing a letter to the IRS seeking their involvement. They wrote, “As you are surely aware, this scandal involves the parents of college-bound children allegedly paying for fraudulent SAT and ACT test scores, allegedly bribing college administrators, and committing other fraud to help their children attain preferential admissions. As alleged in various Department of Justice charging documents, those payments often took the form of fraudulent tax-deductible donations to a charity known as the Key Worldwide Foundation.”

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of action the IRS takes against these people who assume they can buy education. Sure, the kids got into a great school, but that doesn’t make them or their parents smart. For those of you who actually work hard, play fair and have common sense, keep filing your taxes and be cautious about the charitable organizations you contribute to.