Does it trouble you to learn that about $130 million in tax refunds were claimed in 2010 by roughly 50,000 prison inmates who had provided the IRS no information about their wages?
Well, that was the finding of a recent government investigation.
We hasten to point out that some of those refunds may well be legitimate. But the inspector general for the U.S. Treasury said the undocumented refunds merit further investigation.
That’s obviously true. We do not say that refunds should be withheld unlawfully – even from duly convicted criminals.
But extreme care should be exercised to deny fraudulent refund claims, and those who file such claims should be prosecuted.