This text was not translated, because it is originally in English
Tax credits of $7500 are questioned—and sometimes wildly misapplied.

Recall that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids of sufficient battery capacity currently qualify for a federal tax credit of $7500. Lets stress the word: credit, something that comes at next years income tax filing, not at the time of EV/PHEV purchase.

This latter payback is more correctly termed a rebate. And with the federal governments encouragement of this automotive technology, Sen. Deborah Stabenow, D-Mich. , has proposed turning todays $7500 tax credit into a rebate.

This, however, has the National Automobile Dealers Association worried that theyd be the ones—not the Internal Revenue Service—tasked with determining the legitimacy of the cash back for each customer.

Not that the IRS has set especially high standards in this regard. According to The Associate Press, a Treasury Department report says nearly 13,000 people wrongly claimed some $33 million in EV/PHEV tax credits during the first six months of 2010. This amounts to about 20 percent of the $163. 9 million in allotted credits.

Its not clear that some tax payers werent simply confused. However, Id have to wonder about those claiming the $7500 credit for their Hummer H3, Dodge Durango and Cadillac Escalade. Lets give partial credit (though not in dollars) to the guy with the golf cart.

In fact, the IRS acknowledged that some of its own employees had entered erroneous claims. And there were 29 prisoners who received $49,926 in various vehicle credits—despite their being in stir throughout 2009.