Well, back in December of 2002 a woman named Norma Coronel allegedly gave birth to nineteen children. I never heard of this, and with the birth supposedly happening in nearby Los Angeles, I’m certain that a woman giving birth to 19 children would have made the news. (Yes, nondecuplets would be having 19 children at once.)
Ms. Coronel allegedly put down all 19 of her “children” on her tax return. The IRS was skeptical. Perhaps it’s the fact that the largest number of live births at once (with all the children surviving) is eight. Perhaps it was the 18 supposedly phony social security numbers. (Ms. Coronel did give birth to a son in December of 2002.)
No matter, the IRS and Social Security Administration investigated, and Ms. Coronel has been arrested and charged with 35 counts of filing false tax returns, using Social Security numbers fraudulently, and theft. She faces a maximum of 143 years in prison and fines of up to $5.6 million.
This is perhaps one of the most Bozo tax fraud cases I’ve ever read.
[…] (erring on the side of caution, I suppose) which equates to a repayment of $16,788 per phony child. As I said when I first reported on this story, claiming something that’s very newsworthy on your tax return that’s false is a sure way […]