Oct 23 2009 :House panel learns that a 4-year-old got the first-time homebuyer credit

[Watchman]

House panel learns that a 4-year-old got the first-time homebuyer credit

BY Catey Hill
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, October 23rd 2009, 11:06 AM

A half-renovated Victorian era home is offered for sale.

They may not be able to cross the street on their own or color within the lines, but many kids qualified for the first-time homebuyer credit.

Due to a loophole and some odd reporting criteria, children as young as 4 received the first-time homebuyer credit that Congress passed last year, according to PoliticsDaily.com. The credit is worth $8,000 and was created to encourage first-time buyers to purchase a home.

More than 500 people have used their children to sign up, with one parent using a 4-year-old to get the credit, the site reported.

These types of claims are among the myriad cases of fraud that have cost the government nearly half a billion dollars, federal investigators told Congress.

Fraudulent claims include people who received the credit but have not purchased homes, who already owned homes, or who were in the country illegally. More worrying, numerous IRS employees have applied for the credit who should not have.

"Based on the administration of the credit to date, I am very concerned about the IRS' ability to effectively administer the credits that are claimed before the Dec. 1 deadline, let alone any credits that may be claimed within future extended deadlines," said Russell George, an inspector general with the Treasury Department, who told a congressional subcommittee about the most brazen instances of bogus claims that he had come across since the IRS created a filtering system last May to weed out suspicious applications.