IRS giving tax credits to illegals who’ve engaged in identity theft

In a typical year, April 15 is Tax Day when hard-working Americans cede over an enormous amount of their income to the federal government so they can redistribute it to all sorts of special interests and protected classes, including illegal aliens.  You heard that right. The IRS has admitted to knowingly granting refundable tax credits, which work as back door welfare payments, to illegal aliens who break the law and steal Social Security numbers to obtain employment and file their taxes.  

During a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen admitted to Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN) that illegal aliens were stealing Social Security numbers and using them to receive refundable tax credits through their annual returns.  Worse, he felt it was a good thing they were filing and didn’t seem committed to stopping it.

Here is what Senator Coats discovered:

What we learned is that … the IRS continues to process tax returns with false W-2 information and issue refunds as if they were routine tax returns, and say that’s not really our job. We also learned the IRS ignores notifications from the Social Security Administration that a name does not match a Social Security number, and you use your own system to determine whether a number is valid.” [Washington Examiner] 

As the Washington Examiner reported, when asked a follow-up question, Koskinen replied, "What happens in these situations is someone is using a Social Security number to get a job, but they're filing their tax return with their [taxpayer identification number]." What that means, he said, is that "they are undocumented aliens . . . They're paying taxes. It's in everybody's interest to have them pay the taxes they owe.”

We have laws on the books in which illegal aliens are supposed to be placed in deportation proceedings, yet criminal aliens – those that have stolen Social Security numbers – are knowingly issued tax credits.  And Koskinen thinks that is a good thing!

Aside from being lawless, Koskinen seems not to understand that illegal aliens don’t earn enough income to register as net contributors.  Like low-income Americans, they earn back more in tax credits than they pay in payroll taxes.

Even under current law, there is a loophole in which illegal aliens can file a tax return with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) instead of a Social Security number and be eligible for the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit.  According to the Treasury Inspector General, this welfare benefit for illegals costs taxpayers $4.2 billion a year.

However, under existing law, only those who submit a valid Social Security number are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).  With this new revelation, though, it is clear that many illegals who engage in identity theft are now collecting both the Child Tax Credit and the EITC.  And by encouraging illegal aliens to file returns with ITINs, they are essentially giving a green light for illegals to violate federal law and obtain employment.  In order to obtain employment, they often steal the identity of Americans.  Yet, this same IRS commissioner who might be impeached for obstructing a congressional investigation into the IRS scandal, has no interest in upholding the rule of law.

Rather than returning to Congress next week to pass green energy legislation and work on their jail-break agenda, imagine if we had a party willing to cut off tax credits to illegal aliens.  Last year, I outlined three pieces of legislation Republicans could bring to the floor in order to protect taxpayers from this scam.  How hard could it be to harness Tax Day and force Democrats to go on record supporting welfare payments for illegal immigrants who’ve engaged in identity theft?

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