By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

FOR the third straight day yesterday, hundreds of CNMI taxpayers went to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service’s temporary field office in the Horiguchi Building in Garapan to clear themselves of potential liability after receiving illegal tax refunds through the U.S. Earned Income Tax Credit program.
The EITC program entitles low to moderate income taxpayers in the U.S. tax refunds, but the program does not apply in the Northern Marianas.
Hundreds of workers here, however, managed to file false claims online and get tax refunds using bogus addresses on the U.S. mainland.
At least 275 of the false claims were filed by Antonieta Bonifacio Aguon who pleaded guilty in federal court on May 10 to conspiring to submit false claims against the U.S government.
The amount involved totaled $850,000.
Aguon declared in court that she got a 5 percent commission for every claim she filed. She may have to spend five years in jail.
One of her victims, Maria Michael, 39, a jobless mother of four, said she got $950 from a child tax claim but received only $500.
Michael said Aguon was introduced to her by her husband’s cousin in 2005.
“She’s working with my husband’s cousin at POI. They said they would take care of my W2 Form. I claimed the child tax credit for one of my children. It was $950 but I only got $500,” she told Variety.
Michael used to be a garment worker at the Neo Fashion factory.
“She should have been honest with me,” she said.
Another EITC recipient, a mother of four, said they didn’t know that it was illegal to claim the tax refund.
She said an accountant, whose name she did not divulge, computed their EITC clam. That person charged them 15 percent of the $2,600 child tax refund they got from the IRS.
A man who asked not to be identified said another accountant computed his EITC claim.
He said he did not get the money because the bank froze his account.
He said he wants to clear his name with the IRS. “It’s a learning experience,” he said.
A majority of those who received tax refunds were from the Philippines. One of them said authorities should ask other recipients who computed and filed their false claims. “There are other people who computed for us. It’s not just her (Aguon),” he said.
The IRS said an investigation is still ongoing.
The 275 CNMI taxpayers who received the illegal refunds were told to return the money.