Audit finds that dead people were among beneficiaries of homebuyer tax credit
Remember the federal tax credit programs offering $7,500 and, later, $8,000 to first-time home buyers? The credits were designed to deliver a jolt to the reeling housing industry. And they did: More than 4 million people applied for and have received nearly $30 billion worth of credits.
Most of them, according to the Internal Revenue Service, went to people who legitimately qualified for the credits. But a series of audits has documented foul-ups by the IRS, ranging from credits granted to prison inmates and dead people, fraud schemes involving claimants who never bought a house and even credits for purported home purchases by teenagers and kids as young as 3 years old.
