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Treasury Official Says Over $600 Million Of Credit For First-Time Home Buyers Are Suspicious
October 24, 2009 1:00 p.m. EST
AHN Staff
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The Office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has observed about 90,000 ineligible and suspicious claims of tax credits totaling over $600 million under the federal tax credit program for first-time home buyers.
Treasury Inspector General Russell George revealed his agency's findingsĀ in a hearing this week of the Subcommittee on Oversight of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Ways and Means.
The tax credits are granted under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which initially allowed a maximum $7,500 one-time tax credit to Americans who bought a principal residence from April 8, 2008 to July 1, 2009. Section 1006 of the HERA extended the credit to home purchases from Jan. 1 to Dec. 1, 2009 with a maximum tax credit of $8,000.
Congress set aside $13.6 million for the tax credits in HERA, of which $4.3 billion is estimated to be paid out in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. However, as of Oct. 9, 2009, over 1.2 million tax returns with claims of almost $8.5 billion had been processed by the Internal Revenue Service.
Among the findings of the Office of the Treasury Inspector were 19,300 electronically filed 2008 tax returns in which the taxpayer claimed the credit before the house was purchased. Claims of this kind reached over $139 million. They also found out that 74,000 taxpayers entered information on any of the past three years that indicated they may have owned a home. Returns of this type reached more than $500 million.
Another anomaly was identification of more than 580 taxpayers who were younger than 18 years old, but claimed almost $4 million in first-time homebuyers credits. They youngest claimant was a four-year old child.
Despite those dubious claims, George said the program played a significant role for millions of American taxpayers. However, he expressed concern about the IRS' ability to effectively administer the credits claimed within the original deadline, made more cumbersome with the extended deadline for some taxpayers.
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