Where is the press?

In recent months, the American television media has displayed a surprising lack of curiosity. While crimes with much more of an impact on the average citizen are occurring at the IRS, much of the American media has been focused on the sensational Jodi Arias and George Zimmerman trials. The non-stop analysis and conjecture by well-groomed legal celebrities have pushed aside any news of a more direct importance to the average American. Not that they really care about any of them.

Did anyone catch the report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration titled “Substantial Changes Are Needed to the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number Program to Detect Fraudulent Applications”? There’s an item contained in the report about 23,994 tax refunds for  2011 being issued to a single address in Atlanta Georgia? The total take here: $46,378,004.  How about the 8,393 tax refunds that were sent to one bank account? Total damage: $236,747.

The entire report is quite breathtaking in the audacity and scope of the deceit. It involves what is known as an ITIN- Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. The report states that numbers are issued to individuals, aliens “who do not have and are not eligible to obtain an SSN.” It further reads  “ITIN guidelines state that supporting documentation must prove foreign status and identity. However, enforcing this requirement is not possible given the IRS’s current practices.” Individuals assigned an ITIN should either be a resident not authorized to work in the United States or a nonresident.

Two questions come up-

1) Who is filing the fraudulent ITIN applications?

2) Who at the IRS that is approving these applications?

Is there a mass media news outlet left in this country that wants to know what lies behind this monumental and apparently well-run scam? Do they want the perpetrators of this fraud punished like they do George Zimmerman? Will they spend months on this story like they did with the Jodi Arias trial?

Frankly, I think they are afraid to lift the lid on this.

* http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/auditreports/2012reports/201242081fr.pdf

Related articles

• IRS sent refunds to 23,994 undocumented immigrants at same address (bizpacreview.com)
• Tax ID numbers combine for multiple IRS refunds (watchdog.org)