Using Basic Data to Foil Tax Scammers

Plenty of people believe that the IRS is incompetent, but I didn't realize how little the organization understands about basic data.

Last night's 60 Minutes segment on identify tax fraud drilled the point home. Sure, people have always tried to avoid paying taxes and looked for as many loopholes as possible. Those are givens. It's obvious to me, though, that the highest levels of the organization are oblivious to the power of data to at least minimize these problems.

Heads should roll.

Sending 40 different refund checks to the same freaking address? You must be 'shrooming. How is that not a basic audit report/alert? A college student could write a simple COUNT statement to alleviate the issue, but the top brass at the IRS doesn't seem too concerned here.

Heads should roll.

Simon Says

It's evident to me that many agencies are making progress with Big Data. Kudos to them. It's also entirely clear that most have a long ways to go. Not asking basic questions is costing US taxpayers billions of dollars each year. We may not be able to eliminate fraud, but we are sure as hell not doing very much to stop it. We should be making our data work for us.