By Hunter28 June 20, 2023 2:50 pm Category: Government (0.0 from 0 votes) Rules of the Post Write A New Article How To Post Here Rate this article (5=best, 0=poor)

I listened to a podcast today with Catherine Rampell, a writer for the Washington Post. She talked about the antiquated systems at the IRS, and how the extra funding for the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act (which may be reduced due to the debt ceiling bill) would have helped reduce the deficit.

Although it’s a little counterintuitive, the extra funding would have helped enforcement. The ability to audit high-income earners would have produced as much as 12-to-1 return on investment (meaning $12 in additional revenue for each extra dollar spent in enforcement).

Moreover, she mentioned that studies indicate that when a person is caught cheating on their taxes (or inadvertently underpaying), they are less likely to repeat that behavior. This produces an indirect increase in government revenue over the following years.

You can’t run a government on thoughts and prayers. You need revenue. Cutting money to the IRS means bigger deficits and more debt. It also means the burden falls on you, not the billionaire who's cheating on his taxes.

Read the article or listen to the interview.

Cited and related links:

1. washingtonpost.com
2. omny.fm

Comments Start Below

by Indy! on June 20, 2023 3:11 pm Paywall on the WaPo which is also a rightwing apology mill anyway. Raise taxes on the wealthy and put all IRS agents on the top 1%'s tax returns. Make it illegal to offshore profits in the Cayman's. Raise the cap on SSI earnings. There a million easy ways to increase tax revenue - if we attack the actual problem... THE WEALTHY DO NOT PAY ENOUGH IN TAXES. Cutting the military budget in half for 5 straight years would also go a long way towards balancing the account. Chasing after poor folk's $600 Etsy gig work is not going to solve the deficit "problem" (🙄) that nobody cares about except when it's time to help the 90%. by Curt_Anderson on June 20, 2023 3:17 pm I was surprised to learn the IRS disproportionately goes after non-rich income tax evaders. But it makes sense, as the WaPo reports: "Wealthy people generally have more complex tax returns, so auditing them costs more." Additionally, rich people like Trump throw legal roadblocks in the way of the IRS making collecting taxes more costly. Republicans, who love to wrap themselves in the American flag, have an hypocritical aversion to paying their fair share of the cost of operating and maintaining our great nation. For example, during the 2016 presidential debates he was accused of paying no federal income tax in some years, flag-hugger Trump didn't deny it. In fact, he said: "That makes me smart." by Indy! on June 20, 2023 4:23 pm LOL! Not surprised you're a proponent of screwing the poor, Curt. Falls right in line with your Republican ideology. by Curt_Anderson on June 20, 2023 4:31 pm Indy, What do you mean? Are you suggesting that I am a proponent of going after the "poor", oppressed, never-catch-a-break, wealthy tax cheats? If so, guilty as charged. by oldedude on June 20, 2023 7:05 pm actually curt, it's about chickshitting small businesses to produce a Marxist, totalitarian government. It's more about fuck the people, and help the wealthy. by Indy! on June 20, 2023 7:37 pm Pick a side, Curt. In two posts you pretended to support two different groups. Comical that you think the WaPo's opinion matters, btw. Why not just go directly to the source and ask Jeff Bezo's who he thinks the IRS should be chasing. Oh wait... that's what you did. 😂 by oldedude on June 20, 2023 7:39 pm concur. I thought it was weird also. by Curt_Anderson on June 20, 2023 8:30 pm Indy, I have been consistent. Everybody should pay their fair share of income tax. Btw, that means more than 40% of households don't earn enough to pay any income tax. The enforcement of income tax collection should be equitable. Until recently millionaires and billionaires were much less likely to be audited than a middleclass taxpayer. As the article pointed out, the IRS, with their staffing shortages has resisted tackling complicated tax returns from the Donald Trump-types. We should have a tax policies as we did during the Eisenhower years with a 90% marginal tax rate on the very wealthiest. But there is no point in passing laws to raise taxes on the rich if the current tax laws are not being enforced and rich scofflaws ignore the laws we do have. I know you didn't and cannot read the WaPo. Jeff Bezos' newspaper said this in the column Hunter linked to: They looked at the consequences of the huge cuts to the IRS’s enforcement budget that began in 2010. Audit rates plummeted (by about 40 percent overall, within four years), but the agency did not cut back on the audits with the lowest ROI. Instead, for whatever reason, it cut a lot of the highest bang-for-the-buck audits. Based on the agency’s past prioritization of audits, and the way its internal costs are structured, the authors found no evidence of diminishing marginal returns. For every additional dollar spent auditing people in the top decile of the income distribution, the government can expect to get 12 times that amount back. Twelve! As any tax-dodging billionaire can attest: It’s pretty hard to beat that return on investment. by Indy! on June 21, 2023 12:43 am This is not a new thing, Curt. The oligarchy has been using that excuse to not audit the wealthy for at least 30yrs. If they can chase after $600 - they can chase after Bezos and his pals too. by Ponderer on June 21, 2023 6:07 am If Trump has taught us anything, it's how easy it is for the richest Americans to illegally cheat on their taxes and get away scot-free. That is why the increased funding for the IRS got cut. They don't want their game spoiled. by Indy! on June 21, 2023 9:20 am Exactly, Pondy. And quite honestly, Trump just baldface saying straight up he was merely taking advantage of the system is one of the few times I respected his scams. But Curt actually believed Nancy Pelosi when she said one of the ways the rich get away with not paying their taxes is thru their $600 a year side gigs on Etsy and Ebay. 🙄 Go To Top

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