Another Failed Obama Program

A government investigator reported nearly 1,300 prison inmates wrongly received more than $9 million in tax credits for homebuyers despite being locked up when they claimed they bought a home.  The investigator said 241 of the inmates were serving life sentences.

"A very small number of payments were made to prisoners incorrectly, which the IRS is now taking all steps to recapture and to prevent going forward," the IRS said in a statement. "The IRS will follow up on every instance of an improper prisoner payment and take swift and appropriate enforcement actions."

More than 14,100 taxpayers wrongly received at least $26.7 million in tax credits that were meant to boost the nation's slumping housing markets, said the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

"This is very troubling," George said. "Congress created and modified the homebuyer credit to stimulate the economy and help taxpayers achieve the American dream, not to line the pockets of wrongdoers."

Congress started the first-time homebuyer tax credit in 2008, providing couples up to $7,500 that had to be repaid, free of interest, over 15 years. The credit was essentially an interest-free loan.  Last year, Obama and Congress upgraded the credit significantly, increasing the top amount to $8,000 and ending the requirement that it be repaid.

George's report targets taxpayers who claimed the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit under these two programs. Since then, in November, Congress expanded the tax credit to existing homeowners, offering up to $6,500 to longtime owners who bought new homes.

A total of 1,295 prison inmates were able to get $9.1 million in credits, in part because the IRS does not keep up-to-date records of who is in prison, the IG's report said. None of the inmates filed joint returns, so the claims could not have been for purchases by spouses.

An estimated 10,282 taxpayers wrongly received credits for homes that were also used by other taxpayers to claim the credit. Investigators were unable to quantify the amount of money they received, "but all indications are that the total will be in the tens of millions of dollars," the IG's office said in a statement.

The home buyer tax credit is another flawed program by Barack Hussein Obama and his administration.  After 18 months all we have are failed and flawed programs.  Obama’s change is destroying America.

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