That’s not what they’d be doing. They’d simply be saying, “Hey, someone’s using your SS# for work purposes, watch your credit and if you see anything inform the authorities.”
Current law already states that filing a fraudulent tax return is an aggravated felony that subjects the violator to deportation:
The IRS can definitely aid in identity theft cases without much effort. Taxpayer: “Hey, remember that notice you sent me about my SS# being used? Well a credit card account was opened up under that SS# and it’s not mine.” IRS forwards the info to the INS and the FBI.
But (again) that’s not all you said. But never mind. The only problem I see with this that in some cases the IRS may not know which is the fraud and which is real.
The taxpayer could just informed the FBI himself though. And should.
True. I’ll be interested in seeing what the exact legislation looks like. The IRS could be empowered to go after illegal workers, and I’m sure the funding would be forthcoming. All you need is some phone reps who call the INS whenever a SS# doesn’t match a name.
You have just signed and filed a confession of criminal activity. The IRS may not be *required *to inform DOJ of it, but what do you think would stop them?
It’s not a penalty notice, and they often dont know who the income belongs to. Generally if its a “borrowed” SSN, then it’s obvious (John Smith vs Jose Garcia) and then either the notice will be sent just to Jose, or if it’s a very small item, sometimes to both (since small items are never initially seen by a human, the computer does them). If that happens, then a simple phone call or letter to the W2 matching unit will solve it.
My Bro worked for the IRS for 20 years. The only thing that can cause the sort of problems described in the article is when the “other guy” also uses the name. This is very very rare. SSN "borrowers’ use their own name, almost every time.
But it’s not impossible for a borrower to have a rather similar name to the borrowee, and that’s what causes the problem, even tho very rare, as I said above.
So, let us say the IRS knows the SSN 123-45-6789 is used by Jose A Garcia of Chicago, to whom the SSN was originally issued. And Jose G Garcia of San Diego. There’s a 1099 from Bobs Trucking in Phoenix for $1000 to Jose Garcia, not reported on either 1040.
Do you automatically assume it’s Jose G Garcia? Or do you send notices to both?
“without much effort”= IRS agent being fired, federal Felony charges and civil liability for both the IRS and the Employee. It’s illegal for the IRS to do that.
It’s not like the tax return would say it was illegal activity. You’d just call yourself a wholesale distributor. Sch C even allows 999999 as an activity code - “Other”
So the IRS wouldn’t know anything from the surface of the tax return to indicate an illegal activity. They’d have to audit you to determine that… and even then, their concern is not whether you’re breaking drug laws, but whether you’re breaking tax laws.
In thinking about branches of government, remember that the IRS is a part of the Treasury Department. They’re not even in the Justice Department’s chain of command.
(As I understand it, there are issues the IRS can refer to DOJ, but my money says your drug lord will only be caught through IRS efforts if he doesn’t file his taxes.)
Tax farming has historically totally worked and never resulted in any problem whatsoever !
For the history challenged : this was actually the norm back in the day, all the way to the Roman Empire. The state auctioned tax gathering by basically saying “all right, we need 10 million dollars to Do A Thing, who can provide that ?”. The prospective volunteer would give the state the full 10 million dollars up front then be granted the exclusive right to collect taxes within a given circumscription. It was entirely up to them to recoup their losses and turn a profit. This typically involved groups of large men with baseball bats and a rather loose interpretation of the tax code & excise rates.
For some reason the taxees didn’t usually enjoy that system. It’s one of the big ticket items that led to the French Revolution. And the fall of the Roman Empire. Also the Qing dynasty in China.
But hey, feel free to try it again, I’m sure it’ll work out fine this time :D.
Then again, we’re already doing this in parts of the USA. Just look at how the entire legal system in Ferguson is built around ‘farming’ the population for fines. Then don’t think for half a second that this isn’t a fairly common practice.