IRS Erroneously Paid Slavery Credits. I love this one. There’s a scam going around telling African American taxpayers that, for a fee, they can get tax credits or refunds as reparations for slavery. Last year more than 77,000 tax returns made a claim for these funds. Here’s the funny part: the IRS actually paid out around $30 million in such claims, even though no such claim is supported in the tax code. “Most of the mistaken payments were for about $43,000, a figure Essence magazine suggested in 1993 as the updated value of 40 acres and a mule, which some freed slaves were given under an order by a Union general during the Civil War. …Starting Monday, the IRS will be begin levying a $500 fine on taxpayers who do not withdraw the claim if they have been caught.” Associated Press …Does this suggest that it’s that easy for anyone to get away with a substantial claim for a nonexistent tax credit?

[My apologies to non-U.S. readers. You may not know that this is Tax Weekend (as I’ve begun to see it referred to), just before the April 15th deadline for Americans to file their income tax return for 2001. Without the pleasure of making the acquaintance of the intricacies of the U.S. tax code, you probably fail to comprehend either how  a farce such as the above could occur or why it would be so amusing. As a matter of fact, I may have only non-U.S. readers this weekend, as the rest of you frantically labor to finish your returns…]