Cracking down on fraud

Cracking down on fraud

Marietta Times: Apparently, crime does pay when Uncle Sam is the victim. That needs to end — now.

Four senators, including Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, are upset the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service have not cracked down on prison inmates who receive income tax refunds improperly.

Throughout the nation, enterprising convicts have conned the IRS out of a whopping $123 million during the past five years. The IRS itself admits that in 2009, 45,000 fraudulent tax returns were filed by prison inmates.

Prison systems, state and federal, should be required to provide the IRS with tax status information on convicts [to help reduce fraud].