Need a little extra cash this tax season? Well, now that the filing deadline is past, I guess I can share with you the secret more than 100,000 other Americans have found. If you need a little extra money in your pocket, tap Uncle Sugar, um, Uncle Sam for a few extra greenbacks.
Have I lost my mind? Absolutely not, but it seems some people have this notion that you can actually get something for nothing, and with that line of reasoning, think that Internal Revenue Service will give them a refund of $40,000 or $80,000. If it were true, I’m filing, too!
How is it that more than 100,000 people have filed for refund, yet the refund isn’t fact-based? Well, I spent about three (3) minutes poking around the IRS’ website and found a PDF file that gives information about the so-called slavery reparations for which so many Americans are filing. That PDF file can be found at
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/ir-02-08.pdf. The last paragraph of the file sums up the entire controversy into a tidy 59-word message that, in essence, says, “don’t even try it." In the IRS’ words, the PDF file explains that, “Currently, there is no law that allows the U.S. government or the IRS to pay slavery reparations or refunds. At one time, after the Civil War, Congress passed a bill to allow slavery reparations in the form of 40 acres and a mule, but that bill was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson and thus was never enacted into law."
But, but … I can hear people now. Some clamoring that they ought be entitled to slavery reparations for people long dead, and others clamoring they want blood money for people they don’t even know lived, not to mention existed.
According to information released earlier this month, the Internal Revenue Service inadvertently paid out more than $30 million to tax filers seeking the fraudulent slavery reparation money in 2000 and 2001.
The IRS contends that many black taxpayers are being misled by scams falsely claiming that, for a fee, they can get the reparations paid for slavery. The scams offer credibility when some taxpayers actually get the so-called “reparations money."
For last year, the 2000 filing year, more than 77,000 tax returns were filed claiming $2.7 billion in reparation refunds. That’s almost seven times the number of tax returns filed for 1999 when 13,000 returns were filed seeking the reparation money. The scary part of the story is that the IRS discovered some refunds were actually being issued – in error – but was only able to stop some of the refunds. An agency that demands absolute perfection from taxpayers screws up and can’t stop further screw-ups mid-season. I love it!
David C. Williams, the U.S. Department of Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration was giving testimony before the Senate earlier this month. In his testimony, Williams said that refunds totaling more than $80,000 were issued “in some instances" to married couples when each spouse claimed the reparations credit.
During all of 2000 and the first quarter of 2001, more than $30 million in wrongful reparation refunds were paid by the IRS, Williams testified. Is that scary, or what? He went on to say that a computer program was developed to identify additional claims. That program found an additional $16.1 million in claims before they were paid.
According to a Washington Post story, one IRS employee is currently under investigation for his role in processing the fraudulent returns and reparation refunds. According to that same story, there were at least 12 former and current IRS employees who applied to receive the credit, as well. The news article did not say whether they received the checks, but it did identify all of the 12 as low-level workers in processing centers.
Various reports show that most of the payments were for about $43,000. That is the magical figure that Essence magazine suggested in the early 1990s as the current value of 40 acres of land and a mule.
Over on the soc.culture.zimbabwe newsgroup, in the “Slavery Reparations" thread, I found Greg Berchenko, from Howard University, arguing that paying reparations to blacks in America, for slavery that ended here more than 150 years ago, is wrong.
“… No African-American who lived through slavery in America is alive today. That's certainly true about Mauritania and Sudan, but whatever you think of reparations movement in America, they are not arguing about experience of people in other countries, they demand reparations for what happened here in America. I still disagree with it, and it's one area where I disagree with several Howard U. professors."
I salute Greg for his stance. Paying an entire class or group of people, many who cannot establish that they would even be entitled to such a tax, is wrong. It’s good to see young minds not getting caught up in the corruption of political correctness or in the blathering of people who have an agenda, or professors who may not appreciate that you have a mind of your own.
Bruce Tindall wanted to know how people were filing the fraudulent returns, so he turned the question to those on the alt.folklore.urban newsgroup, in the “Reparations (more than just an UL)" thread. Ulo Melton replied, explaining the people probably enter the information in a common block on the form. Ulo said, “In the ‘Payments’ section of your friendly form 1040, you'll find a line labeled ‘Other payments’ (line 65 this year). I’m betting that line attracts all sorts of inventive claims," Ulo wrote.
Continuing in his explanation, Ulo wrote, “In other cases, a scam artist files a return for his clients. He tells them he’s filing for the slavery reparation credit, but really just loads the return with whatever deductions and credits he thinks will work. They get the money, he gets a percentage, and he’s gone by the time the IRS catches on."
The IRS is now in the process of trying to reclaim the money paid out in error, under fraudulent conditions, but the agency has not said how much has been collected to date. It will be interesting to see just how much the agency actually collects, if any, over the next few years.
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"Getting the Tax Credits You Don’t Deserve"
