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To: Lane3 who wrote (8728)	4/13/2002 8:42:16 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 21057

washingtonpost.com IRS Paid $30 Million In Credits For Slavery Hoax Led to Claims For $2.7 Billion By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, April 13, 2002; Page A01 The Internal Revenue Service, handling more than 100,000 tax returns seeking nonexistent slavery tax credits, paid out more than $30 million in erroneous refunds in 2000 and 2001. One IRS employee is under investigation for allegedly helping process returns that claimed the credit, officials said yesterday. At least 12 current and former IRS employees, all low-level workers in processing centers, applied to receive such a credit. While it has been known for years that some fraud artists advertised the false credit and offered to help African Americans get it -- for a fee -- this is the first indication that the cost to the government was so high. Many of the mistaken payments, including one to a former IRS employee, were for $43,209. That's the figure Essence magazine suggested in an article on the subject in 1993 as being the updated value of 40 acres and a mule, which some freed slaves were given under an order by a Union general during the Civil War. Claims for the "reparation credit" totaled $2.7 billion in 2001 alone, an IRS spokesman said. The tax agency is now trying to recover the money it paid out, though officials would not disclose how much has been collected. In one case, a taxpayer received $500,000 in refunds, and the IRS said "most" of the money was returned after it sued. "You've got to look at the big picture," IRS spokesman Terry Lemons said. "Our system does catch the vast, vast majority of these. But things happen, and a check goes through." Starting Monday, the IRS will be begin levying a $500 fine on taxpayers who do not withdraw the claim if they have been caught. A number of African American leaders have pushed for some sort of compensation to blacks for the nation's legacy of slavery, but no law has been enacted. The IRS has waged a high-profile campaign to alert African Americans about the marketing of the false credit claims. The agency previously conceded that it has mistakenly paid some claims, but an investigation by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration concluded last month that the total was significantly higher than had been reported. The agency used to rely on manual detection to catch the false claims, but has begun using a new computer program thatidentified 96 percent of returns seeking the credit. The IRS computer program that tracks down false filing has proven successful simply by picking out returns that seek a credit of around $43,000. Pamela Gardiner, deputy inspector general, said the agency had seen a huge jump in filings claiming the credit, and one reason may be that so many taxpayers have begun receiving the refunds. "Schemes all tend to jump as word begins to get out," she said. She noted that in some cases couples received more than $80,000. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said she and other lawmakers have tried hard to get the word out that there are no such credits. "People are easily fooled because sometimes someone gets something," Johnson said. "But they are not legal and should not be considered to be such." Johnson said it was unfortunate that the IRS has mistakenly paid out so much money. "All it does is put people in the position to have to pay the money back with interest and penalties," she said. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee, sent a letter yesterday to Internal Revenue Commissioner Charles Rossotti requesting information on the status of the IRS employees who applied for the credit. The Finance Committee has been focusing on the tens of billions of dollars lost to tax scams. "The fact that today we learn that we have IRS employees also engaged in tax scams as well shows how widespread it is," Grassley wrote. In an interview, Grassley said the employee who may have allowed the scheme to flourish "needs to be punished worse than the taxpayers." Johnson said the involvement of IRS employees "makes you wonder who they are hiring. You'd think that of all the people they'd know better." Officials declined to disclose details of the investigation of current and former employees, citing privacy concerns. An IRS official said the case involving the employee who may have helped process returns claiming the credits "is believed to be of negligence." Regarding the employees who applied for the credit, Lemons said: "We're seeing all sorts of honest taxpayers who are being duped by these slavery scam promoters." © 2002 The Washington Post Company

To: Lane3 who wrote (8728)	4/13/2002 8:45:14 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 21057

Can truffles be applied externally directly to the hips ? now you have me thinking of them too.... Chocolate and butter are such a wonderful things when put together with sugar ... hmmmmmmmm yum! ;-)