The IRS paid $5.8 billion to identity thieves in 2013

It recovered more than $24 billion dollars. At least, it thinks so. The Government Accountability Offices finds the IRS does a decent job of estimating how much it pays out in refunds to people using stolen identities. But GAO says there's room for improvement, like challenging its own assumptions in a more dynamic analyis. Auditors say the IRS should present a range of possible fraudulent payment levels to reflect the uncertainty in calculating these things. The agency answers, it would love to, if only it had the money and people to do so.