Tag: stimulus

IRS Responds To Rumors Of ‘Fourth Stimulus Check’ Coming In November

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has addressed rumors that have emerged on social media claiming that a fourth round of stimulus checks will automatically go out to residents in 10 states on Nov. 30.

The rumor began after the IRS revealed on Nov. 17 that some Americans who were eligible to receive pandemic-era stimulus checks but didn’t apply for them could still get the money by filing amended tax returns for 2020 and 2021 and claiming the funds through the “recovery rebate credit.”

Following the IRS’ announcement on Nov. 17 that some people who missed out on earlier stimulus rounds or got checks but didn’t get all the money they were eligible for, a post on social media claimed that the IRS was going to send out a fourth round of stimulus checks.

The widely shared post claims that a “4th round” of “stimulus checks” is going out at the end of the month in the following 10 states: Alabama, Arizona, Maryland, New York, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas.

“If your account information is on file with the IRS, you will automatically get your money deposited into the account they have on file,” reads the widely shared post. “If you received a paper check for your tax refund this year, you will get your stimulus. So if you moved & they don’t have a new address, that’s your business.”

The post then went on to claim that the payments will range from $500 to $2,000 depending on the state. It also cites its purported sources as “Google & IRS.”

However, a spokesperson for the IRS said that the rumor of a fourth round of stimulus checks is false.

Anthony Burke, an IRS spokesperson, said in an emailed statement that no fourth round of stimulus checks has been authorized.

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Current, Former IRS Employees Took Thousands In Fraudulent COVID Relief, Spent It On Gucci, A Mercedes, And Trips To Vegas

Five current or former employees of the IRS have been charged with scheming to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID relief.

The Department of Justice announced in a press release Tuesday that the five individuals had each been charged with separate counts of wire fraud after they defrauded the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which provided economic relief to small business owners and individuals affected by the COVID pandemic. The fraudulent loans ranged from as little as $11,000 to more than $170,000.

“These individuals – acting out of pure greed – abused their positions by taking government funds meant for citizens and businesses who desperately needed it,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, Kevin G. Ritz, said in a statement. “I thank our law enforcement partners for rooting out this fraud. Our office will not hesitate to pursue and charge individuals who steal from our nation’s taxpayers.”

The first suspect was employed by the IRS as a Program Evaluation and Risk Analyst in the Human Capital Office. According to the criminal indictment, the suspect filed four fraudulent EIDL applications, seeking more than $500,000 in funds; he received a total of $171,400 in funds. The suspect allegedly spent the relief money on a Mercedes-Benz and placed the rest of his funds into a personal investment account. He is charged with two counts of wire fraud and an additional two counts of money laundering.

The second suspect worked for the IRS as a contact representative in the Wage and Investment Service Centers Department. According to the indictment, she allegedly sought at least $32,500 in loans from multiple PPP and EIDL applications; she received $11,500 in funds. She spent the funds on manicures, massages, and luxury clothing. She also obtained more than $16,050 in fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits from the Tennessee Department of Labor. She is charged with three counts of wire fraud.

The third suspect worked as a Management and Program Assistant in Information Technology. According to the DOJ, she allegedly submitted EIDL applications for a fashion business, seeking more than $300,000 in loans and obtaining $28,900. She allegedly spent the loan funds on Gucci apparel and a vacation in Las Vegas. She plead guilty to one count of wire fraud Tuesday.

The fourth suspect worked as a Contact Representative in the Wage and Investment Service Centers Department. He allegedly applied for four PPP and EIDL loans, seeking more than $113,000; he received $66,666 in funds. He allegedly spent the money on a Gucci satchel and other personal items. He plead guilty to a single count of wire fraud in August.

The fifth suspect worked as a Lead Management and Program Assistant in the Human Capital Office. She allegedly applied for four PPP and EIDL loans, seeking more than $133,000 in loans; she received more than $123,000. She then allegedly spent the funds on jewelry and trips to Las Vegas. She also plead guilty to one count of wire fraud in July.

Each wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The first suspect could also face up to 10 years in prison for each money laundering charge.

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Historical Levels of Fraud – How $600B Was Snatched from American Pockets in Almost 3 Years

Fraudulent looting of coronavirus relief programs may amount to the most expensive waste of taxpayer money in American history.

As much as $600 billion in federal funds intended for coronavirus relief have been siphoned away through various forms of fraud, according to one estimate.

In comparison, Congress authorized $5 trillion in total federal relief spending, according to the New York Post.

The overwhelming majority of Paycheck Protection Program loans will never be repaid to the government.

As of August, 10.2 million PPP loans have been partially or fully forgiven — more than 88 percent of the 11.5 million loans that were issued. The program was authorized with the goal of keeping small businesses and their employees afloat amid the pandemic’s effect on the economy.

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Paul Pelosi-Linked Business Has Millions in PPP Loans Forgiven

The Paycheck Protection Program created to help small businesses survive the pandemic by doling out loans to help them retain employees has been a bonanza for companies linked to the rich and famous, according to new reports.

The website ProPublica has amassed a searchable database of the loans, which media outlets have been exploring to find out how many rich recipients will never have to pay back a dime.

The trick is to know the corporate names of businesses in which the rich and famous either operate or have a share in.

Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has an 8.1 percent share in a company called EDI Associates, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.

The restaurant company received loans of more than $1.7 million from the federal government, which won’t have to be repaid, the Daily Mail reported.

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Fed report finds 75% of $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program didn’t reach employees

Taxpayers paid $4 for every $1 in wages and benefits received by workers in jobs saved by the federal government’s pandemic Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), according to a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The Fed study also found PPP didn’t support jobs at risk of disappearing, and money flowed disproportionately to wealthier households.

“The PPP was a very large and very timely fiscal-policy intervention, saving about 3 million jobs at its peak in the second quarter of 2020 and distributing $800 billion well within two years of the onset of the COVID-19 crisis,” authors William Emmons and Drew Dahl concluded in their study, “Was the Paycheck Protection Program Effective?”

“But it was poorly targeted, as almost three-quarters of its benefits went to unintended recipients, including business owners, creditors and suppliers, rather than to workers. Due to differences in the typical incomes of those varied constituencies, it also ended up being quite regressive compared with other major COVID-19 relief programs, as it benefited high-income households much more.”

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This State Lost HALF Its Pandemic “Stimulus” Benefits to Fraud and Scammers

The federal government’s multi-trillion-dollar “stimulus” efforts during the pandemic may go down as the biggest legislative failure in modern American history. Congress spent an astounding $42,000 per federal taxpayer (do you know anyone who received anywhere near that much in benefits?) and only successfully “stimulated” inflation. What’s more, evidence continues to mount that the biggest beneficiaries of this binge were criminals and fraudsters.

A new analysis from the American Enterprise Institute’s Matt Weingarten reports that the state of Illinois lost half of the money it sent out in expanded pandemic unemployment benefits to scammers.

Illinois’s inspector general reports that the level of fraud it experienced was “unprecedented” and amounted to more than $1.8 billion lost.

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IRS gave $64 million in stimulus checks to dead people

The Internal Revenue Service sent $64 million in erroneous payments to as part of the American Rescue Plan due to a computer error of which the agency was aware but did not fix, according to an inspector general report.

Nearly 45,000 payments totaling $64 million were sent to people for their deceased dependents, who died before Jan. 1, 2021, making them ineligible for Biden’s stimulus payments of up to $1,400.

“We alerted the IRS to this programming error in April 2021. IRS management agreed that these payments were issued erroneously. However, IRS management did not provide their corrective action to address future erroneous payments,” the treasury inspector general stated in a report released last week.

The IRS went on to issue more than 400 additional incorrect payments for those with a deceased dependent after being alerted to the issue, the watchdog said.

In total, more than $100 million was incorrectly issued due to computer programming errors up to September 2021, the inspector general stated.

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Democrats push for $300 a month stimulus checks to help Americans struggling to pay for sky-high gas prices as a gallon soars past $6 in LA and 73% of voters say they back tax breaks

With the price of gas rising across the U.S., lawmakers are developing a string of proposals to help motorists – from $400 rebates for all taxpayers in California to imposing windfall taxes on oil companies or a sliding scale of payments that could net families as much as $300 every month.

The average cost of a gallon has raced past $4 a gallon amid domestic inflation and the impact of Vladimir Putin‘s war in Ukraine.

This week, the average price of a gallon of regular gas in Los Angeles hit a record $6.011, even as the national average continued to decline slightly from the all-time high earlier this month, according to the AAA Gas Price Index. 

An opinion poll published Wednesday found that almost three quarters of voters were in favor of a holiday from federal energy taxes to ease the burden.

And lawmakers across the country are pushing legislation to bring down prices at the pumps.

A new bill proposed by three Democrats – Reps. Mike Thompson of California, John Larson of Connecticut and Lauren Underwood of Illinois – could be worth $300 each month to some families if the price of a gallon stays above $4.

‘Americans are feeling the impact at the pump of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and right now we must work together on commonsense policy solutions to ease the financial burden that my constituents are feeling,’ Thompson said in a news release. 

‘The Putin Price Hike is putting strain on our economy, and I am proud to be working with Reps. Larson and Underwood to introduce this legislation to provide middle-class Americans with monthly payments to ease the financial burden of this global crises.’ 

Their plan follows the model of COVID economic impact payments – offering $100 for single filers earning less than $75,000, plus $100 for each dependent. 

It is just one of a series of proposals unveiled recently.

In California, Democratic lawmakers want a $400 rebate for taxpayers – costing about $9 billion drawn from the state’s budget surplus and equivalent to the average gas tax paid by residents over a year. 

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