This “beyond bizarre” story of extreme government waste and IRS ineptitude was exposed Friday evening by CNS News: The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to “unauthorized” alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). That was not the only Atlanta address theoretically occupied by thousands of “unauthorized” alien workers receiving millions in federal tax refunds in 2011. In fact, according to a TIGTA audit report published last year, four of the top ten addresses to which the IRS sent thousands of tax refunds to “unauthorized” aliens were in Atlanta. 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. This is unbelievable. I honestly have no idea where to begin trying to process this story. For starters, how on earth can local postal workers not notice delivering thousands of refund checks to a single residence? You’d think that the 3 mail trucks sent to one address might leave a serious clue. Beyond that, how on earth can a government agency have such lousy computer systems? At one time I was a self-employed direct mail specialist. I would religiously go through the simple process of cleaning databases to make sure that we weren’t sending multiple solicitations to the same addresses. How can the Internal Revenue Service not have similar safeguards in place? If a single address is getting more than 2 or 3 refund checks you would think that it would raise a red flag in any well-built system. The only explanation I can think of is that this Atlanta address must have 23,000 bedrooms which is why they immediately didn’t catch this. Come on… There is no excuse.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 06:52:42 +0000