Inmates booked $9.1M in homebuyer tax credits

By Mary Ellen Podmolik
Posted June 25, 2010 at 2:45 p.m.

Another report is out looking at fraudulent activity related to the homebuyer tax credit and this one’s got a new wrinkle.

Almost 1,300 prisoners in jail –  including 241 serving life sentences — wrongly received $9.1 million in credits for home purchases they purported to make while in jail.  Another 2,555 improperly received $17.6 million for home purchases made before the tax credit became effective, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, 1.8 million taxpayers received $12.6 billion in homebuyer credits before March.

But that doesn’t mean 1.8 million homes were sold. The agency found that 10, 282 taxpayers received a credit for buying the same home as was used by other taxpayers for the credit. In fact, 67 taxpayers used one  house. Auditors said the erroneous credits are likely to add up to tens of millions of dollars.

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One comment:

  1. Conrad dejoy June 30, 2010 at 2:35 pm

    How do 1,300 people at $8,000 a person ad up to 9.1 million dollars