2y ago

Americans failed to pay record $688 billion in taxes in 2021, IRS says. Look for more audits.

www.cbsnews.com

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2y ago

Americans failed to pay record $688 billion in taxes in 2021, IRS says. Look for more audits.

www.cbsnews.com /news/tax-irs-says-unpaid-tax-gap-at-record-688-billion/

14 comments

The IRS has said it won't increase audits on households earning less than $400,000 annually.
Going after rich tax cheats is one of those bipartisan policies that only Republican politicians and their rich donors oppose. Fund the IRS and make these rich assholes pay their fair shares!
- Fund the IRS
  You can't fund the IRS. The IRS is a government agency. And those are awful. Watch, I'll prove it:
  starves agency of funds for years
  See? They suck. They can barely function. Time to make more cuts in the name of fiscal responsibility!
  see also: EPA, USPS, ED, HHS, DOT, DOL, FCC, FTC, etc.
  
  :(
- I get the republicans are rich and tax cheats. But do you really think only Republicans are going to oppose it? No rich democrats ever cheated on their taxes?
For everyone not reading the story. The majority of this is from rich people, large businesses, and partnerships. The IRS is indicating that they need to go after those people I just listed more. Why CBS decided to write the headline in a manner that makes it sound like they are coming after everyone, is likely because they knew it would generate more "emotions" about those connotations.
The agency has said it wants to go after higher earners who skirt their tax obligations in order to help close the tax gap and raise more money for federal coffers
But the story indicates that the IRS feels like they need to go after rich people even more based on their recently released data. At no point in the story did the IRS indicate that they needed to take the average household and put the clamps on them. Thank you for your time.
- In this context, I would love to see more audits!
Insert required Fuck Intuit/TurboTax/CreditKarma here, who spends billions to make the tax system stays as complicated as it is.
The IRS already knows how much everyone should be paying, so just give us a single bill already.
- That's how most other countries do it. They give you an estimate, you reply with your deductions or you accept it and do nothing. Easier and cheaper for everyone.
Great, let's start with the big fish and work our way down to the guy who didn't claim his $1000 hardship withdrawal from his 401(k).
- Start the audits with everyone who took PPP loans.
Americans
Come on gang, this one's on all of us. Now we all gotta dig deep and really pitch in to close that gap that we all definitely contributed to equally. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your neighbors: this year, America's gonna do better.
- At least read the article. Literally the second sentence reads:
  “The agency said that it is taking "urgent" steps to increase compliance such as auditing more high-income taxpayers as well as businesses and partnerships. “
  It goes on later:
  “ The IRS has said it won't increase audits on households earning less than $400,000 annually.”
- No. Why would they do that? There’s no money there. Poor people are on the hook for hardly any tax anyway. The people who cheat generally own companies or are self employed and often have access to cash. It happens a lot in small businesses. It’s a crime of opportunity. Hard to do it when tax is already deducted from your check before you get it. Easy when you can put yourself on the books for a modest salary and pocket a bunch of cash under the table.
- IRS: Let's spend $10 million dollars investigating and prosecuting poor people so that we can get $5 out of them.

14 comments