Nothing in Dems bill to stop increased audits of middle class
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There’s a huge problem for Yellen and Biden: there is no language in the IRA that prevents the IRS from conducting more audits on the middle class and small businesses. All we have are politicians’ verbal assurances and biased media “fact checkers” telling us Republicans are full of it.
It is true that Yellen has freshly directed the IRS to not increase the audit rate of under-$400,000s. And it’s also true that there’s no structural enforcement mechanism preventing the agency from continuing to go after low-hanging fruit to meet revenue targets. Or, in the memorable words of PolitiFact, “There’s no guarantee that the agency will adhere to the new policy it has announced, but there’s no guarantee that it won’t.”
Indeed, simple common sense tells us there are going to be more audits of middle-class taxpayers and small businesses: That’s where the money is.
The administration is not going to get $124 billion in revenue only from the rich. They’re going to have to squeeze cash out of those making less than $400,000 by strict enforcement of IRS rules. Breaking IRS rules is exactly what an audit is meant to uncover. It won’t matter if a taxpayer has been taking the same deductions for years. If the auditor chooses to interpret the rule a certain way, the taxpayer is toast.
Besides, as I’ve pointed out before, you don’t get to be rich in America by paying taxes. And the rich don’t pay their lawyers and accountants to help the IRS collect the taxes it thinks it’s owed. It’s why tax increases never, ever, ever raise as much revenue as politicians claim they will.
And it’s why the White House is lying when it says it won’t increase the number of audits on the middle class.
The rich hire accountants and lawyers to deal with the IRS and many in the middle class cannot afford that luxury when dealing with the IRS.
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