Vegas
04-12-2007, 08:42 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070412/pl_nm/usa_taxes_fraud_dc;_ylt=AgUNfoadKqvMTTRgKtUQ6FLMWM 0F
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It doesn't take a rocket scientist to collect money from the
Internal Revenue Service by filing fake income tax returns, a convicted felon told a U.S. Senate committee on Thursday.
As millions of U.S. taxpayers push to meet the April 17 deadline to file their 2006 tax returns, Evangelos Dimitros Soukas described to the tax-writing
Senate Finance Committee how easy it was for him to net more $43,000 in tax refunds from phony returns.
"In my eyes, it doesn't take an Einstein to file false tax claims. It is actually pretty easy," said Soukas, explaining that he only has a high school diploma and never had any training for tax preparation.
Soukas said he filed his first phony electronic return in 2000 after responding to an ad by a national tax preparation chain offering loans against anticipated refunds. It took years for federal authorities to catch up with him and he is serving a term of more than seven years in a federal prison in California.
Soukas said he filed several phony returns in 2001 using stolen identities he got from a friend working an entry level job at a cellular phone company.
He used the money to travel to Greece and said the government finally caught up with him because he used his own bank account for the scammed money.
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (news, bio, voting record), a Montana Democrat, said Soukas' tale was not just one of "criminal ingenuity" but one of how the IRS lags behind the times in safeguarding its electronic tax filing system.
IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said the agency is making progress on enforcement and complained that tight budgets in past years left the agency short of enforcement agents. He also said it was difficult for the agency to pursue criminal cases involving less than $40,000.
Soukas said simple security measures often used by banks to screen online account users, such as a PIN number or use of a mother's maiden name, might have thwarted his efforts.
Earlier this month U.S. authorities accused five Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. tax preparation franchises and a number of individuals of cheating the government out of more than $70 million through a massive tax-fraud schemes.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It doesn't take a rocket scientist to collect money from the
Internal Revenue Service by filing fake income tax returns, a convicted felon told a U.S. Senate committee on Thursday.
As millions of U.S. taxpayers push to meet the April 17 deadline to file their 2006 tax returns, Evangelos Dimitros Soukas described to the tax-writing
Senate Finance Committee how easy it was for him to net more $43,000 in tax refunds from phony returns.
"In my eyes, it doesn't take an Einstein to file false tax claims. It is actually pretty easy," said Soukas, explaining that he only has a high school diploma and never had any training for tax preparation.
Soukas said he filed his first phony electronic return in 2000 after responding to an ad by a national tax preparation chain offering loans against anticipated refunds. It took years for federal authorities to catch up with him and he is serving a term of more than seven years in a federal prison in California.
Soukas said he filed several phony returns in 2001 using stolen identities he got from a friend working an entry level job at a cellular phone company.
He used the money to travel to Greece and said the government finally caught up with him because he used his own bank account for the scammed money.
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (news, bio, voting record), a Montana Democrat, said Soukas' tale was not just one of "criminal ingenuity" but one of how the IRS lags behind the times in safeguarding its electronic tax filing system.
IRS Commissioner Mark Everson said the agency is making progress on enforcement and complained that tight budgets in past years left the agency short of enforcement agents. He also said it was difficult for the agency to pursue criminal cases involving less than $40,000.
Soukas said simple security measures often used by banks to screen online account users, such as a PIN number or use of a mother's maiden name, might have thwarted his efforts.
Earlier this month U.S. authorities accused five Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc. tax preparation franchises and a number of individuals of cheating the government out of more than $70 million through a massive tax-fraud schemes.