Audit: $513 mil in IRS homebuyer credits questioned

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service has paid out more than a half-billion dollars in homebuyer tax credits to people who probably didn't qualify, a government investigator said Friday.

Most of the money - about $326 million - went to more than 47,000 taxpayers who didn't qualify as first-time homebuyers because there was evidence they had already owned homes, said the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury's inspector general for tax administration. Other credits went to prison inmates, taxpayers who bought homes before the credit was enacted and people who did not actually buy homes.

Friday's report is the latest in a series of audits George has conducted on the homebuyer tax credit. It says the agency paid out $513 million in questionable claims for the homebuyer tax credit.

"The IRS has taken positive steps to strengthen controls and help prevent the issuance of inappropriate homebuyer credits," George said. "However, many of the actions occurred after hundreds of thousands of homebuyer credits had already been issued, including fraudulent and erroneous credits totaling millions of dollars."

The popular credit provided up to $8,000 to first-time homebuyers and up to $6,500 to qualified current owners who bought another home during parts of 2009 and 2010.

IRS spokeswoman Michelle Eldridge said the agency worked hard to enforce a complicated tax credit that provided nearly $29 billion to more than 4 million taxpayers. The agency audited nearly 448,000 returns and blocked or denied nearly 426,000 questionable claims, she said.

In all, the agency's enforcement efforts saved more than $1.3 billion and identified more than 200 criminal schemes, she said.

The tax credit for first-time homebuyers was part of the economic-recovery package enacted in 2009. In November 2009, Congress extended the credit and expanded it to longtime owners who bought new homes.

by Stephen Ohlemacher Associated Press Apr. 16, 2011 12:00 AM




Audit: $513 mil in IRS homebuyer credits questioned