While doing hard time is anything but a walk in the proverbial park, anyone who's watched HBO's 'Oz' knows a resourceful inmate can still enjoy many of the perks of pre-incarcerated life while behind bars. From recreational drugs, to chipped cell phones, to fried chicken, there are plenty of ways to partake in life's finer things as you count away the days.
But who knew inmates were receiving tax refund checks, and large ones at that, while still in the pen? Here's the story:
Prisoners in Florida, Georgia and California lead the nation's inmate population in scamming payments from an unlikely benefactor: the IRS. Prisoners in the three states received nearly $19 million in IRS refunds during 2009 after filing false or fraudulent tax returns, according to an IRS report to Congress that was included in a federal audit released in January.
The haul was part of $39.1 million in undeserved federal tax refunds the IRS issued to jail and prison inmates nationwide for phantom jobs on phony returns, the data shows. That's nearly triple the $13.4 million annual in tax refunds the IRS reported it issued to prison scammers just five years earlier.
Posted By: DAVID JOHNSON
Saturday, February 19th 2011 at 12:47AM
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