Because it might just get you fired? I’ve mentioned before that in 2005 the IRS found almost 8 Million W-2 forms with missing, duplicate, or false social security numbers. One woman had 81 people in 17 states using her social security number (link). We can conclude from this that there are millions of people intentionally filing tax forms incorrectly, and chances are that a lot of them are illegal immigrants.
It’s interesting that last year (4.24.2006), this article (link) popped up about how the IRS and Social Security Administration were thwarting justice by refusing to cooperate with identity theft investigations:
Two federal agencies are refusing to turn over a mountain of evidence that investigators could use to indict the nation’s burgeoning work force of illegal immigrants and the firms that employ them.The Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration routinely collect strong evidence of potential workplace crimes, including names and addresses of millions of people who are using bogus Social Security numbers, their wage records, and the identities of the bosses who knowingly hire them.But they keep those facts secret.The two agencies don’t analyze their data to root out likely immigration fraud, and they won’t share their millions of records so that law enforcement agencies can do that, either.Privacy laws, they say, prohibit them from sharing their files with anyone, except in rare criminal investigations.
Evidence abounds within their files, according to an analysis by Knight Ridder Newspapers and the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer.One internal study found that a restaurant company had submitted 4,100 duplicate Social Security numbers for workers. Other firms submit inaccurate names or numbers reports for nearly all of their employees. One child’s Social Security number was used 742 times by workers in 42 states.“That’s the kind of evidence we want,” said Paul Charlton, the U.S. attorney in Arizona. He regularly prosecutes unauthorized workers, but says it’s hard to prove employers are involved in the crime.“Anything that suggests they had knowledge . . . is a good starting point. If you see the same Social Security number a thousand times, it’s kind of hard for them to argue they didn’t know.”
26 USC Section 7206(1)
(felony)Anyone who willfully makes and subscribes any return, statement, or other document, which contains or is verified by a written declaration that it is made under the penalties of perjury, and which he does not believe to be true and correct as to every material matter shall… be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $5,000, or imprisoned not more than 3 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.
So what if there are almost 8 Million tax perjurers out there? What do you do? Oh, that’s right, you give them a “path to citizenship”.