The Biden administration has rejected a government estimate that the federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud. The estimate, made by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), is the first and only government-wide estimate of its kind, representing 3% to 7% of average federal obligations.
Fraud Losses
The estimated losses work out to between $1,431 and $3,200 for each of the nation’s estimated 162.8 million individual income tax filers, according to IRS data. The wide range reflects different risks over the five-year period the estimate covers.
Jason Miller, then the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said in April 2024 that the estimate was ‘not plausible’ and would ‘create confusion and promote misleading generalizations that have no factual connection to specific federal programs.’ However, the Trump administration has taken a different view, with an OMB spokesman stating that annual losses to fraud have been enormous, certainly numbering in the hundreds of billions.
Rebecca Shea, director of GAO’s forensic audits and investigative service, said that the agency has no plans to update the spending-side estimate, in part because GAO recommended Treasury develop an approach for doing so going forward. A revenue-side fraud estimate is expected this fall.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
