WHOEVER DECIDED TO MAKE FILING TAX RETURNS A MONEYMAKING PROPOSITION WAS AN IDIOT

More to come, but for now, I’m just going to say that I have personally been affected by the scamming of the IRS that is now rampant.  That scamming is the result of Congress’ decision to use the tax code, and the IRS, as a vehicle for government benefit payments, in the form of what the code refers to, in a masterstroke of political euphemism, as “refundable credits.”  If you claim a refundable credit that’s more than what you owe in tax, or if you don’t owe any tax at all, you get cash from the government.  In other words, Congress decided to make filing tax returns a moneymaking proposition.  Gee, who would have guessed that such a system would become a magnet for fraud?