Paul L. Caron
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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

TIGTA: 41% Error Rate in $30 Billion First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Program

TIGTA The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration yesterday released First-Time Homebuyer Credit Repayment Notices Were Incorrect, and the Method Used to Identify Dispositions Is Unreliable (2011-41-097):

Each of the laws which provide First-Time Homebuyer Credits (Homebuyer Credit) contains different Homebuyer Credit amounts, qualification requirements, and repayment requirements. Our review identified inaccuracies relating to the issuance of Homebuyer Credit repayment notices. ...

The IRS reported a total of $29.7 billion in Homebuyer Credit claims were made by more than 4 million individuals as of May 7, 2011. Our overall objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of IRS processes to ensure the accurate and timely repayment of the Homebuyer Credit. ...

The IRS issued incorrect notices or did not send notices to 61,427 households due to notice programming errors or incorrect information on tax account. ... [O]ur review of the third-party vendor’s research results for a statistically valid sample of 97 taxpayer accounts determined that for 40 (41%) of the taxpayer accounts, the information provided to the IRS had incomplete or inaccurate information.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2011/10/tigta-irs-has-.html

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From the TaxProf: TIGTA: 41% Error Rate in $30 Billion First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Program From the TIGTA report:... [Read More]

Tracked on Oct 13, 2011 6:27:20 AM

Comments

Slartibartfast, I too was making two separate points.

Posted by: American Delight | Oct 15, 2011 6:25:29 AM

The IRS is making a worldwide push to squeeze money from Americans living abroad and from anyone who holds dual citizenship, whether they know it or not. It doesn't matter if the "duals" want US status, have never set foot on US soil, or never conducted business with an American. I have experienced a lot of IRS problems since i move out of the U.S. My advice is to hire a CPA specialized in expat taxes for your tax returns if you live abroad.

Posted by: Daniel | Oct 14, 2011 7:41:43 AM

Is the tax code now past even its minders being able to do a decent job with it?

Posted by: Harry Schell | Oct 13, 2011 4:24:18 PM

Yeah, these are the guys I want administering my health care.

Can anyone name one program that the gov't has ever handled efficiently?

Even the military (as good at destroying things as they are) is woefully inefficient when it comes to handling money or resources.

Posted by: Walt C | Oct 13, 2011 2:20:12 PM

You didn't read to the end:

[O]ur review of the third-party vendor’s research results for a statistically valid sample of 97 taxpayer accounts determined that for 40 (41%) of the taxpayer accounts, the information provided to the IRS had incomplete or inaccurate information.

That is a completely different point than the point that the IRS had failed to mail notices regarding homebuyer tax credit to 61k homes.

Or you can read the report itself, which TaxProf has kindly linked.

Posted by: Slartibartfast | Oct 13, 2011 1:37:28 PM

Okay, the IRS had 61,000 wrong or unsent notices out of 4 million. That's insignificant. They were doing their best to implement a flawed policy.

The blame, it would seem, falls on the 40 percent of claimants who submitted bad information. I guess they thought they could claim the credit without having to actually fill out each line of the form they were signing.

Posted by: American Delight | Oct 13, 2011 6:53:47 AM