IRS Turns to Wealthy Non-Filers in Push to Get More Tax $$$

More from the article...

... The agency is using letters to target 125,000 cases of taxpayers with incomes of more than $400,000 who didn't file returns between the years 2017 and 2021, according to a Thursday announcement. Letters to non-filers are set to go out this week.

The IRS called the hundreds of millions of dollars expected a "conservative estimate." The taxpayers targeted have an economic activity of more than $100 billion, according to the agency.

The IRS is broadly focused on closing the tax gap, or the difference between what is owed and what is paid, by targeting high-net-worth individuals. The Democrats' tax-and-climate law provided tens of billions of dollars in funds to the agency, which allowed for increased enforcement efforts. Large partnerships and corporate jet users are other areas where the IRS is looking to recoup the money it is owed. ...

@#1 ... The Democrats' tax-and-climate law provided tens of billions of dollars in funds to the agency, which allowed for increased enforcement efforts. ...

Yup.

And this is why the Republicans were so vehemently against the bill that gave the IRS more money to go after affluent non-tax-payers.

It is why the Republicans lied about the bill, and made up bogus stories of how the bill would give money to the IRS to arm agents who go after lower- and middle-class taxpayers.

The Republican party protects the wealthy, with little apparent concern about the lower- and middle-class.

... Who gets audited by the IRS?

Since increased IRS enforcement will eventually lead to more audits, a common question is whether those audits will focus on low and middle-income earners.

A Government Accountability Office report found that in the past, lower-income taxpayers have seen higher-than-average IRS audit rates. Other FY 2021 data show that IRS audit rates for people with less than $25,000 a year in income were five times higher than audit rates for high-income taxpayers.

But so far, the Treasury Department has indicated that low or middle-income earners, and small businesses, won't be the focus of increased IRS enforcement activity under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Ultimately though, the IRS wants to close an estimated $600 billion "tax gap." (The tax gap is the difference between what people owe in taxes and what they actually pay.) To do that, the agency plans to focus on high-earners, large corporations, and complex partnerships. That's potentially good news if you're a household making less than $400,000 a year or a small business. ...

[emphasis mine]

It looks like the Treasury Department is following through with what they said they would do.

Also...

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says 'New IRS Force' Takes Aim at Small Businesses (August 2022)
www.newsweek.com

... Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said that Democrats are assembling a new armed Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "force" that will target small- business owners.

Greene said on Friday that the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected soon due to the bill recently being backed by moderate Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, would provide $80 billion in funds to help the IRS establish a new force to target middle-income Americans and small businesses. ...

Greene is not the only prominent conservative to suggest that the IRS is stockpiling weapons and ammunition as part of a plan to unleash an armed tax collection force. Fox News host Tucker Carlson urged his viewers to be "very worried" that the government is "treating the IRS as a military agency" on Thursday night. ...

@#6 ... How do they know? ...

If you had read the article, you'd know.

... Why wasn't this the first post? ...

Typically in my #1 post I just elaborate upon my headline summary post.

I do expect that there will be reading of the article by others before they decide to show their ignorance on the topic.

@#8 ... Hahaha no one who has ever earned enough income in America to file a tax return would ask that question. ...

Yup.

That aside, the article answers the question asked, which shows that the current alias that asked that question did not even take the time to read the article. Disrupt rather than discuss? You decide. :)

@#11 ... Letters? How much additional funding did they need for that? ...

The additional funding is not to send out the letters, but to provide the legal support when those letters are challenged.

That level of legal support is what the IRS was not able to fund in the past before the bill was passed.

It was typical Republican policy... underfunding federal agencies, then complaining that those agencies are unable to do their job so they should be disbanded.

My question was, and still is, why do Republicans profess to support the working class when they just want to put more burden upon the working class?

Why are Republicans so astonishingly afraid of the wealthy being audited? Do the Republicans know, and want to hide, something we don't (or, more specifically, the IRS) don not know?