The IRS is a Mess
You probably read about the backlog of federal tax returns, edging on a full year of reviews, but the IRS can’t get to them. It’s causing immense issues for those who are to receive tax rebates or money back. That’s bad enough. But somehow, the IRS’s “ability” to conduct basic functions was illuminated even further.
A 63-year-old man was charged with fraud recently. This individual somehow had gotten 76 nonprofit applications approved through the IRS. Thus, he was able to solicit donations to charities that don’t actually exist.
So why is this so depressing? Several factors.
He used the EXACT same address on all 76 applications, which should’ve been an enormous red flag.
He literally stole names of other nonprofits that would easily be identifiable as non-legitimate or challenging to believe. In one case, he literally took the name of the American Cancer Society of Michigan. That’s a problem because the American Cancer Society is somewhat well-known to everyone.
In taking other nonprofits’ names, he attached them to different geographic regions. In the example above, it was Michigan. The problem was at the mailbox that he used as an address was in Staten Island, New York. That would be kind of problematic.
Other nonprofits begin to raise concerns directly with the IRS, including the American Cancer Society, who said that this group is a fraud, is not “us,” and is not a legitimate nonprofit. Several other organizations did similar notifications to the IRS offices. The IRS kept saying “yes” to new applications.
The whole thing is a complete and utter debacle. A simple hand check of addresses would’ve figured this out. Having a computer system looking for anomalies like similar addresses or similar names would have figured this out. Anyone not sleeping could’ve figured this out. And of course, the IRS refuses to comment or to make anyone available to comment on the issue stating they said “taxpayer privacy.” What a farce.
We need a tax-collecting agency in this country. Frankly, we need the IRS to be good at what they do. They play a critical role in our society to fund our governmental functions. But over the last five to ten years there seems to be no accountability for anything. I’m sure there are those who advocate for them regarding budgets and personnel. And those issues might be legitimate. But there are some basic things that have to get done to build credibility. This individual hurts nonprofit trust overall across our country. And right now trust is a value we need a lot more of to succeed daily.
