Executive
Waste of the Day: IRS Program Overpaid Tax Credits By $6.2 Million
The Individual TIN program at the IRS paid out $10.9 million in erroneous credits but improperly denied $4.7 million in proper credits.
The Internal Revenue Service’s program that administers Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers paid almost $10.9 million in erroneous retroactive tax credits to individuals whose TIN was not issued on or before the return due date, a new audit found.
There were 5,534 tax returns for which the IRS paid the almost $10.9 million in erroneous tax credits, according to a December audit from the Treasury Inspector General For Tax Administration, a finding that comes after years of warning about the use of Certifying Acceptance Agents.
The IG explained that Certifying Acceptance Agents or CAAs, help TIN applicants authenticate their identifying documents before submitting their application to the IRS.
Since 2018, the IG “has repeatedly raised concerns related to the use of CAA, including that the IRS has not effectively ensured that compliance reviews were completed on those CAAs that presented the highest risk to the ITIN Program,” the audit found.
In 2020, it reported that for FY 2016-FY 2019, the IRS completed an average of over 300 reviews per fiscal year. In FY 2022, the IRS completed only 25 compliance reviews of domestic-based CAAs and didn’t do any compliance reviews during FY 2023.
What’s more, the IG audit found 2,519 tax returns with refundable and nonrefundable credit claims for $4.7 million that were incorrectly disallowed when the TINs were issued on time. With the $10.9 million erroneous tax credits paid, the $4.7 million in incorrectly denied claims brings the IRS overpayment to $6.2 million.
The IG recommended that the IRS review the 5,534 tax returns for which the IRS incorrectly paid retroactive credit claims and the 2,519 tax returns for which the IRS incorrectly denied retroactive credit claims “and ensure that erroneous funds are recovered and that taxpayers receive the benefits to which they are entitled.”
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com.
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) is the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.
Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.
Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.
Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.
Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.
In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.
Andrzejewski lives in Hinsdale, Illinois with his wife Kerry and three daughters. He is a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and has finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).
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