How to Not Go to School and Get an Education Tax Credit

This week’s Golden Fleece Award, presented not with a diploma but a dunce cap, goes to the Mother of all money burners – the IRS.

What a nice idea: Go to school and get a tax credit. But why bother going to school when IRS dunces will give you the credit whether or not you take a class? In 2011 the IRS issued $5.6 billion of your dollars to 3.6 million taxpayers, most of whom never submitted tuition statements from their schools.

According to a Treasury inspector general, “The IRS still does not have effective processes to identify erroneous claims for education credits.”

Earth to IRS: In the real world we set up “effective processes” before we start handing out money.

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