The Department of Revenue Services said the amount of tax fraud that it has identified and prevented this year is substantially higher than in previous years.
DRS said that so far this season it has detected $14 million worth of fraudulent claims for tax refunds. It said that’s a 150 percent increase over last year.
This year’s tax season has been fraught because of multiple data breaches from major companies, including the hack at Anthem health insurance, which saw the information of more than a million Connecticut residents compromised.
DRS said it has been using multiple layers of variable screening to prevent fraud; however, the numbers of people discovering tax fraud as they filed this month has also risen dramatically.
Trade Rally
Unions, environmental groups and business people will rally in Ansonia today in the latest attempt to send a message to President Obama on the Trans Pacific Partnership — the massive Asian trade deal he wants to fast track through congress. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro has been leading the fight to give lawmakers a say in how the deal is structured. She said she’s concerned that it will lead to job losses and downward pressure on wages in the U.S.
GE to Republicans: Reauthorize Ex-Im Bank
Big businesses continue to pressure Republicans in congress to act on the Export Import Bank. The latest to speak up, John Rice, the head of international operations at General Electric. He told London’s Financial Times that failing to reauthorize funding for the Ex-Im Bank sends a strong message to the rest of the world that we are not going to participate entirely. He claimed it would leave the U.S. as the only major economy without an export credit agency.
GE is a major beneficiary of the financing provided by the bank for overseas clients to buy its goods, but Rice said, "the idea that Ex-Im is a fat cat support mechanism is just not true."
