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Undocumented workers have figured out a way to get more money from the government than the regular tax payers will ever see.

According to a recent investigation, they’re claiming children, lots and lots of children, on IRS tax returns.

Kids that are not their own, and even kids that don’t live here in the US.

It’s an abuse of additional child tax credit refunds by undocumented workers, something that has been going on for years.           

Illegal immigrants are filing tax returns by using an individual taxpayer identification number, or ITIN, in place of a social security number.

According to the IRS, it’s legal.

But the children that many illegal immigrants are claiming are not qualifying dependents for additional child tax credit, and they are claiming them anyway.

In 2010, it cost you, the taxpayer, roughly $4.2 billion.    

According to Republican Congressman Blake Farenthold, undocumented workers are claiming children on their tax returns and lying to the federal government by saying these kids live with them here in the United States, when they actually live in Mexico.

“It’s an example of waste, fraud, and abuse in the government, and it’s an easy loophole to correct. In fact, the house of representatives already passed as part of our budget reconciliation act a requirement that in order to claim this credit, you have to have a social security number of the dependent children,” says Farenthold.

A bill has sat in congress, but Republicans and Democrats cannot agree how to fix this billion dollar problem.
           
Democratic congressman Ruben Hinojosa says there needs to be a change, but requiring a social security number is going too far. He says that “such a drastic change would be devastating to millions of innocent children.” He adds that this would “disqualify two million working poor families and force them deeper into poverty.”

But republicans say requiring a social security number would eliminate the temptation of claiming kids who are not US citizens.

So who is to blame for all of this? Well, the IRS says it’s not them.

They sent us a statement placing the blame on the tax preparers, saying “The IRS is very focused on preventing erroneous refund claims.” They also say they have “introduced new requirements and higher standards on tax return preparers to ensure they understand their obligations to assist taxpayers in preparing accurate returns.”