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IRS Sent $46 Million in Tax Refunds to 23,994 'Unauthorized' Aliens

by Jason Howerton

Demonstrators with the Tea Party protest the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) targeting of the Tea Party and similar groups during a rally called 'Audit the IRS' outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, June 19, 2013. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

The IRS sent more than $46 million in tax refunds to 23,994 "unauthorized" alien workers who all listed the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to an audit report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

However, the Atlanta address that received millions of dollars in refunds was not the only address apparently housing thousands of "unauthorized" aliens. In fact, it wasn't even the only address in Atlanta that was claiming such a situation.

The TIGTA audit report, published last year at the request of members of Congress, revealed 10 addresses in the U.S. that were issued anywhere from 1,846 to 23,994 tax refunds each. Four of those 10 addresses were located in Atlanta.

CNSNews.com breaks down the report:

The IRS sent 11,284 refunds worth a combined $2,164,976 to unauthorized alien workers at a second Atlanta address; 3,608 worth $2,691,448 to a third; and 2,386 worth $1,232,943 to a fourth.

Other locations on the IG's Top Ten list for singular addresses that were theoretically used simultaneously by thousands of unauthorized alien workers, included an address in Oxnard, Calif, where the IRS sent 2,507 refunds worth $10,395,874; an address in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the IRS sent 2,408 refunds worth $7,284,212; an address in Phoenix, Ariz., where the IRS sent 2,047 refunds worth $5,558,608; an address in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where the IRS sent 1,972 refunds worth $2,256,302; an address in San Jose, Calif., where the IRS sent 1,942 refunds worth $5,091,027; and an address in Arvin, Calif., where the IRS sent 1,846 refunds worth $3,298,877.

TheBlaze has reviewed the audit report, posted on the Treasury Department's website, to confirm the information in CNSNews.com's report.

The TIGTA report explains that the IRS since 1996 has been issuing what it calls Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) to both non-resident aliens who have tax liability in the U.S. and illegal aliens living in the U.S. but who are "not authorized to work in the country.

Washington has apparently been aware of the problem for the better part of a decade.

"The IRS has long known it was giving these numbers to illegal aliens, and thus facilitating their ability to work illegally in the United States. For example, the Treasury Inspector General's Semiannual Report to Congress published on Oct. 29, 1999—nearly fourteen years ago—specifically drew attention to this problem," CNSNews.com explains.

Here's what that nearly 14-year-old report warned: "The IRS issues Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) to undocumented aliens to improve nonresident alien compliance with tax laws. This IRS practice seems counter-productive to the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) mission to identify undocumented aliens and prevent unlawful alien entry."

Yet, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the IRS assigned 15,028 unauthorized aliens ITINs at the same address in Dallas, Texas, and 10,356 ITINs at the same address in Atlantic City, N.J.

However, CNSNews.com's Terence P. Jeffrey says this is the "most remarkable" act by the IRS:

It assigned 6,411 ITINs to unauthorized aliens presumably using a single address in Morganton, North Carolina. According to the 2010 Census, there were only 16,681 people in Morganton. So, for the IRS to have been correct in issuing 6,411 ITINS to unauthorized aliens at a single address Morganton it would have meant that 38 percent of the town's total population were unauthorized alien workers using a single address.

There were a total of 154 addresses across the U.S. that appeared on 1,000 or more ITIN applications submitted to the IRS, according to the TIGTA.

Read the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's 2012 audit report entitled, "Substantial Changes Are Needed to the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number Program to Detect Fraudulent Applications," here.

Featured image via Getty

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IRS Sent $46 Million in Tax Refunds to 23,994 'Unauthorized' Aliens
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/06/21/irs-sent-46-million-in-tax-refunds-to-23994-unauthorized-aliens-all-at-the-same-address-in-atlanta/

John Hames