IRS paid $513M in undeserved homebuyer tax credits

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service has paid out more than a half-billion dollars in homebuyer tax credits to people who probably didn't qualify, a government investigator said Friday.

Most of the money -- about $326 million -- went to more than 47,000 taxpayers who didn't qualify as first-time homebuyers because there was evidence they had already owned homes, said the report by J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. Other credits went to prison inmates, taxpayers who bought homes before the credit was enacted and people who did not actually buy homes.

"The IRS has taken positive steps to strengthen controls and help prevent the issuance of inappropriate homebuyer credits," George said. "However, many of the actions....... (More on where your $$$ went)