By: Michael Chapman (CNS News)
A new audit-report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) shows that the IRS sent at least 343 potentially fraudulent tax returns in 2011 to the same, single address in Shanghai, China, for a total of $156,533 in tax refunds.
The same report also shows that 655 potentially fraudulent tax refunds totaling $220,489 were sent to the same address in Kaunas, Lithuania. Other potentially fraudulent refunds, 580 of them, were sent to the same address in Orlando, Fla.; 355 to the same address in Lakewood, Colo; and another 291 to another single address in Orlando, Fla.
In total, those potentially fraudulent refunds totaled $2,715,391.
On a related note, the TIGTA report, which analyzed Tax Year 2011 tax returns, showed that at least 3,145 persons applied for potentially fraudulent Individual Tax Identification Numbers from the same address at five different locations in the United States: one in Santa Ana, Calif; one in Salinas, Calif.; one in Mountlake Terrace, Wash.; one in Milwaukee, Wisc.; and one in Sanford, N.C.
Moreover, the top five countries (not counting the USA) the IRS sent tax refunds to, to addresses that were potentially fraudulent were Bulgaria, 701 tax returns; Lithuania, 676 returns; Ireland, 657 returns; China 443 returns; and Canada, 337 tax returns.
In those countries, the refunds were not sent to the same address respectively, but many were and the audit tagged characteristics in other addresses that it determined indicated potential fraudulence.
The total refunds sent to those 5 countries equaled $1,941,544.
http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/11/07/cns-internal-revenue-service-sent-more-300-tax-refunds-totaling-150k-one-address-china