The $33 Million IRS Mistake!
Posted on February 7, 2011
Filed Under Auto Industry News, Corporate Greed, Debt Collection, Government
It is not quite sure how some owners of vehicles from Dodge Dealers Kingwood thought that their gas guzzler qualified for a fuel efficiency tax credit, but they did. Because of errors by approximately 14,000 tax payers, the IRS is doing an audit for the entire lot of car credits filed. They will be checking to see when those vehicles at Ford Dealers Texas were produced to make sure that the ones that are actually correct for the credit match up with the dates that were followed. It is understandable that some of the fuel efficient cars, such as the Focus from Huntsville Ford, might get mixed up in the error. The Ford Focus has great fuel efficiency and perhaps those owners thought that the tax credit was applicable based on miles per gallon. That is understandable, but, claiming a Dodge Durango, Cadillac Escalade, and Hummer H3 are by no means fuel efficient, and now this audit is going to cost tax payers additional money.
The tax credits are currently in place for electric or alternative fuel vehicles, and the vehicles that fall under that category are far fewer than they have been in prior years. While the Toyota Prius used to come with a handsome tax credit for owners, it no longer qualifies. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration performed an audit and discovered that 20% of these credits were erroneously filed. That equates to $33 million worth of tax credits going to people who should not have gotten them. The IRS will be busy trying to correct the problems, and these credits are meant solely for electric vehicles.
Interestingly enough, there were 88 incarcerated prisoners who claimed they had purchased electric plug-in vehicles and ended up getting $155,000 worth of credits. When you figure that the government is offering $7,500 for people who buy the Chevy Volt or Nissan Leaf and their forms don’t provide proper documentation to prove ownership, people are very tempted to fudge the truth on their taxes. However, now that these errors have come to light, you can expect more stringent documentation and the IRS plans on adding a line on tax forms for the VIN and the internet tax databases will be updated sooner rather than later.
People who looked at this item also looked at…
Related items
Comments
Leave a Reply
