Homebuyer Credit Program Filled with Fraud and Abuse

Thursday, June 24, 2010 5:26 PM by Julie Borowski

Unsurprisingly, evidence has surfaced today that the “first time homebuyer credit” program was abused at an alarming rate – nearly $30 million tax dollars were doled out in fraudulent claims. Most of this money when to people who were, get this, incarcerated. Apparently the vetting process – which we have seen fail at the federal level time and time again – was so lax bureaucrats failed to spot people applying for homebuyer grants who were obviously not going to be moving into a new home anytime soon. The report, issued by the Treasury Department, revealed that over 1,200 prison intimates received $9.1 million in tax credits. Shockingly, these tax credits were granted to 241 intimates serving life sentences – that’s right, the IRS is granting home buying tax credits to inmates that will never leave prison. Funds were also improperly distributed to people who filed outside the deadlines and who files multiple claims – perhaps even less surprisingly, a handful of these inappropriate claims were found to have been filed by IRS employees themselves.

 Despite all the fraud surrounding the controversial program, the Treasury Department has approved similar programs in five states. The program, bombastically dubbed the Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund for the Hardest Hit Housing Markets, provides taxpayer dollars to subsidize mortgages for people who are in danger of losing their homes. After “stimulus” checks have been doled out to dead people, homebuyer “credits” are flowing to prisoners and tax dollars are being indiscriminately used to help “hard hit” states, it’s high time for Democrats to get a clue about why the fiscal health of the nation is such a “serious situation.”

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