The stolen socials are a huge problem that often gets bypassed in the discussions over illegal immigration. It is hell for people that become victims and it is rampant. Illegals cannot work without that social or a tax ID number. So, they just use someone else's number.
My mother was the victim of such identity theft. She is retired and lives with me. Since she is my dependent, I claimed her on my taxes - the credit was much higher than it is now. One year her social was ineligible and my tax return was rejected. We had to go to the IRS office to find out what had happened. It took us half the day to find out that someone in Ohio had used her number to file taxes. We live in Nevada. Most likely an illegal or some other kind of tax fraud. According to the agent, this happens frequently.
We had to go through a bunch of BS to prove she was who she said she was to the satisfaction of the agent. Then the IRS put a pin number requirement on her social. Anyone that has been the victim of such identity theft can have their number locked through the IRS. Every year they send you a new pin number that has to be entered on the tax return in order for it to be unlocked and therefore eligible.
For us, the pin number worked for a couple of years with no problems. Then during Covid the IRS did not send us a new pin number, so I was not able to file my taxes with her as my dependent for that year. During Covid it seemed like no one was working at the IRS, so making contact with anything but an automated system was impossible.
It has been several years now and we still have not been able to straighten the problem out. No one down there seems to know how to fix the issue. After several years now we just gave up. So, I just don't claim her anymore. The deduction for taking care of a parent is not very much, about $500, so it does not make a huge difference in lowering tax liability anyway. It is nowhere close to a dependent child deduction - which is ridiculous especially when many people are helping to support elderly parents these days. But, at least we know that no one else will be able to use her social either to file taxes.
Yeah, exactly. I am a business owner myself and I do not hire anyone illegal.
Just a question. How would you know if they are illegal because many of them have fraudulent IDs and stolen socials?
Good question
The stolen socials are a huge problem that often gets bypassed in the discussions over illegal immigration. It is hell for people that become victims and it is rampant. Illegals cannot work without that social or a tax ID number. So, they just use someone else's number.
My mother was the victim of such identity theft. She is retired and lives with me. Since she is my dependent, I claimed her on my taxes - the credit was much higher than it is now. One year her social was ineligible and my tax return was rejected. We had to go to the IRS office to find out what had happened. It took us half the day to find out that someone in Ohio had used her number to file taxes. We live in Nevada. Most likely an illegal or some other kind of tax fraud. According to the agent, this happens frequently.
We had to go through a bunch of BS to prove she was who she said she was to the satisfaction of the agent. Then the IRS put a pin number requirement on her social. Anyone that has been the victim of such identity theft can have their number locked through the IRS. Every year they send you a new pin number that has to be entered on the tax return in order for it to be unlocked and therefore eligible.
For us, the pin number worked for a couple of years with no problems. Then during Covid the IRS did not send us a new pin number, so I was not able to file my taxes with her as my dependent for that year. During Covid it seemed like no one was working at the IRS, so making contact with anything but an automated system was impossible.
It has been several years now and we still have not been able to straighten the problem out. No one down there seems to know how to fix the issue. After several years now we just gave up. So, I just don't claim her anymore. The deduction for taking care of a parent is not very much, about $500, so it does not make a huge difference in lowering tax liability anyway. It is nowhere close to a dependent child deduction - which is ridiculous especially when many people are helping to support elderly parents these days. But, at least we know that no one else will be able to use her social either to file taxes.
They really should do away with social security. I heard social security number is how U.S becomes a corporation (a bankrupt one, by the way).
Don't quote me on this. Look up USA.Inc.