The IRS knows of more than 130,000 children whose Social Security numbers are being used by illegal immigrants to obtain work, but it is refusing to tell their families, citing privacy rules, the agency’s inspector general said in a new audit released Monday.
Adults whose identities are pilfered for illegal work are alerted, but the IRS says it can’t make the same notifications for the children, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.
That leaves the families in a potential hole, with bogus work histories — and possibly even tax obligations — accredited to the children’s names, all in secret.