The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released a new report a few days ago asserting that individuals received millions of dollars in erroneous plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicle credits
Here's what the TIGTA found:
As of July 24, 2010, TIGTA identified 12,920 individuals who electronically filed their tax returns and erroneously claimed $33 million in plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicle
credits. In addition, 1,719 of the 12,920 individuals also erroneously reduced the amount of Alternative Minimum Tax owed by almost $5.3 million. During this review, management took corrective actions to reduce erroneous claims when process weaknesses were brought to their attention. These actions have resulted in an estimated $3.1 million in revenue protected. The erroneous claims TIGTA identified resulted from inadequate IRS processes to ensure information reported by individuals claiming plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicle credits met qualifying requirements for vehicle year, placed in-service date, and make and model.
In addition, TIGTA found that the IRS is unable to track and account for plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicle credits claimed by individuals on paper-filed tax returns. Processes were not established to capture this information from paper-filed tax returns.
Finally, our review of electronically filed tax returns also identified individuals who erroneously claimed the same vehicle for multiple plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicle credits or claimed an excessive number of vehicles for personal use credits. TIGTA also identified improper claims for the credits by prisoners and IRS employees. TIGTA has referred the information on the IRS employees to its Office of Investigations for further review.