It appears that the IRS has been covering up the fact that 1.1 million illegal aliens have stolen the Social Security numbers of Americans, which can cause major problems for those victims down the road when they file for benefits. Out of those 1.1 million victims, the IRS has only notified 25,000. Illegals have to give employers social security numbers when they apply for work, but those employers are not allowed to check on the validity of those numbers, even when they suspect fraud.
The IRS knows when taxes are filed that fraud is occurring because a special Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) is issued to illegal aliens. The IRS is using multiple reasons for not reporting the thefts but it is apparent that they just don’t want illegal aliens hindered from stealing the jobs of American citizens. Under Obama, we have become second class citizens in our own country.
Congressional Republicans have long complained to the IRS that it is protecting illegal immigrants from discovery by allowing the use of ITINs but failing to share the information with other agencies.
Mr. Coats, who has written legislation requiring victims to be notified, even confronted IRS officials about their lax behavior at a hearing in April.
“All of us can agree that victims need to know that they’re victims, and need to know that an agency of the federal government, whether it’s IRS or whether it’s SSA, or both, ought to have some ability to talk to each other,” Mr. Coats said.
IRS Commissioner John G. Koskinen told Mr. Coats at the hearing that in many of the cases, friends or relatives lent their Social Security numbers to the unauthorized workers, and already know their information is being fraudulently used.
He also said the agency struggled to come up with a solution that wouldn’t chase illegal immigrants away from filing their taxes altogether.
“Obviously, priority for taxpayers and the IRS is collecting those taxes,” he said.
Mr. Koskinen testified at the time that it may take new legislation from Congress to let his agency inform taxpayers they’d been the subject of identity theft.
But the hiccup in communicating with the Social Security Administration seems like it should be easier to solve. The inspector general, however, said the IRS didn’t have a system set up to make sure SSA always knew of the fraud.
In some cases IRS employees said they sent a notice, but the Social Security Administration had no record of it. In other cases, it appears the IRS didn’t even bother to make a notification.