Kids get cribs in homebuyer tax credit scheme

I would love to have taken advantage of the $8,000 homebuyer tax credit the government was giving out this year. All you needed to do was make below a certain income and have not owned a home in the last three years and the credit was yours if you bought a new crib (which you were already likely to be getting at a steep discount and with a mortgage with a low rate). I fell back because I wasn't ready to buy yet but apparently, there were some pretty affluent children who were. That's right: more than 580 people under age 18 received tax credits worth more than $4 million under the program, which was meant to help legitimate first-time homebuyers and to prevent more foreclosures. Of course those homes weren't bought by the kids themselves but by their parents who wanted to get around the government's income guidelines by committing fraud. Of course that was revealed last week, as Congress is in a debate over whether to extend the credit beyond this year. Check out some of these stories on it: ABC News Wall Street Journal Bloomberg

photo: freedigitalphotos.net