Wednesday, April 28, 2004

A cafeteria worker in Pennsylvania with less than $5,000 of annual income managed to get a $2.1 million tax refund check from the IRS. She used the social security number of a real Hawaiian princess (Abigail Kawananakoa) to get a refund check from money the princess deposited to cover her own estimated taxes. An IRS spokesperson said “an erroneous tax refund of this magnitude is very rare.” Her attorneys claimed she was suffering from an “irrational insistence upon an identity that is not her own.”

For press reports, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Kudos to Jack Bogdnaski for flagging this great story.