The IRS Is A Fraud Magnet

With literally trillions of dollars pouring into the U.S. treasury from taxpayers, you just know criminal minds everywhere are greedy to make a grab for some of that cash. And, believe me, many succeed big time!

In fact, just today I read, “U.S. tax authorities were duped into sending $13.8 million to fraudsters who had filed false refund claims to the tune of $210 million according to a government application for the forfeiture of a property in California obtained by Forbes. Allegedly perpetrated between 2016 and 2020, it could be one of the biggest tax refund frauds ever seen in the country.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/06/07/irs-investigates-huge-200-million-fake-tesla-income-tax-refund-fraud/?sh=26bf00417361

I don’t have the kind of mind that would rather spend time figuring out how to dupe another person or a bureaucratic institution like the IRS out of money. And I often wonder as I suppose many people do what would happen if those brilliant criminal minds were to turn their efforts to doing something good to make millions for themselves. You know they are probably smart enough to accomplish something else besides stealing from others. I suppose on some level it must be fun and exciting, but it seems like a lot of hard work must go into it too.

According to the Forbes article, “The crime, if the IRS claims are accurate, would be huge compared to others, especially the nearly $14 million the accused were able to retrieve from the government.”

Just in this most recent 2020 tax filing year, according to a Treasury Report, 30,038 fraudulent refund returns were filed totaling $135 million. The IRS claims to have prevented $133 million from being refunded. They say only $2 million was actually paid out. Hmm, if that’s correct, I applaud them. But even that kind of diligence doesn’t deter the criminally minded, and it didn’t catch that big $14 million fraudulent payout. Fact is the IRS will always be a magnet for fraudsters.