Where's their IT guy?

The IRS says that fraud is costing the taxpayers billions of dollars -- in fact, at least five billion in 2011. The IRS fears that the problem could "undermine public trust in the U.S. tax system." That's a good one! 

I know that some fraud is inevitable, but you'd think that it wouldn't be too hard to add some computer software to stop a lot of it. For example, would it be too hard to cross-reference the Social Security number with the Social Security death index? It seems much of that fraud was from people claiming the identities of dead people. Would it be too hard to flag more than a couple of checks going to the same address? One address in Lansing, Michigan received 2,137 refunds amounting to more than $3.3 million. Would it be too hard to flag refunds going into the same bank account? Again, this happened when hundreds of refunds went into the same account. 

The IRS says it needs third-party information to check these things out. No, it doesn't. It has access to Social Security records already. What third party information does it need to flag multiple checks it generates going to the same address or bank account? 

If their IT guys can't set that up, then maybe they need some new ones.

"Identity thieves costing IRS billions." The Dallas Morning News; August 3, 2012; p. 6a.