Friday, September 8, 2023

IRS to turn up heat on wealthy

WASHINGTON - The IRS announced Sept. 8 it is launching an effort in October to pursue 1,600 millionaires that owe at least $250,000 each in back taxes and 75 large business partnerships that have assets of roughly $10B on average.

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with a boost of $80B in federal funding and AI intelligence tools, the agency has new means of targeting wealthy people who have “cut corners” on taxes. 

The infusion of funds comes via President Biden signing the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022. Republicans in Congress will be looking to grab back some of that money. 

In July, the IRS had already collected $38M in delinquent taxes. 

In 2021, a team of economists and researchers found the top 1% of U.S. income earners fail to report more than 20% of their earnings to the IRS. 

“It’s going to be a very busy fall for us,” Werfel said. 

Grover Norquist, who heads Americans for Tax Reform, said the IRS’ plan to pursue high-end wealth individuals does not preclude the IRS eventually pursuing middle-income Americans for audits down the road. 

This power and these resources allow them to "go after anyone they want,” he said. “The next step is to go after anyone they wish to target for political purposes.” (The AP 09/08/23) The IRS plans to crack down on 1,600 millionaires to collect millions of dollars in back taxes | AP News

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