Report: $33M in EV tax credits went to buy unqualified vehicles

Filed under: Car Buying, Government/Legal

Is a bicycle an electric vehicle? How about a Hummer H3? These are some of the things that Americans claimed were hybrids, alternative-powered or plug-in electric vehicles on their tax forms, reports USA Today. What's more, the false claimants managed to get $33 million back from the federal government. According to the daily, $33 million is about 20 percent of the $163.9 million total that has been claimed under the tax credit programs so far.

The information comes from a new report, published by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (read the full report in PDF), which found that the problem lies with the IRS, which apparently doesn't have the "adequate procedures" required to ferret out which claims qualify and which don't. The IRS responded by saying it, "has already implemented measures to address some of the problems highlighted in the report." Okay, that's all somewhat understandable, but a getting money back for a bicycle? We love bikes, seriously, but we're pretty sure that they're not cars...

[Source: USA Today | Image: General Motors]

Report: $33M in EV tax credits went to buy unqualified vehicles originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 04 Feb 2011 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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