The IRS is sending out more than 125,000 notices to individuals who made $400,000 or more and failed to file returns between 2017 and 2021.
It's estimated that the richest Americans are dodging $150 billion worth of taxes every year.
This is why IRS funding is a good thing.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) March 20, 2024
Tis the Tax Season, and while very few people enjoy paying taxes, most of us accept that taxes are the price of civilization. So this might help your mood a little…
IRS chief zeroes in on wealthy tax cheats in AP interview https://t.co/ff3z6fzbGe
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 20, 2024
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has a message for high-wealth tax cheats who are wrongly deducting private jet travel and otherwise shorting the government on their taxes: Pay your fair share so “others aren’t shouldering the burden of funding our government.”
Werfel, who will hit the one-year mark at the helm of the IRS in April, said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press that the agency will expand its pursuit of high-wealth tax dodgers with new initiatives in the coming months and is using tools like artificial intelligence to ferret out abuses and taking the fight to sophisticated scammers…
“It’s having an impact,” Werfel said. Large corporate filers and others are “taking notice that the IRS is ramping up our scrutiny, and I think that will inevitably result in more compliance” — and revenue…
Werfel has been in a race against time to show how improvements to the agency can benefit taxpayers. He said agency priorities include customer service improvements like answering the phones faster and making sure the rich “pay their fair share.”
The agency also is piloting a program for people to file their taxes directly to the agency without the help — or cost — of private commercial software.
Werfel said more than 50,000 people in 12 states have started using the new Direct File system to complete their taxes. The free online tool is available for people with very simple W-2s and who claim a standard deduction for their federal income taxes.
The Direct File rollout has drawn some consternation from commercial software firms like Intuit, as well as Republicans who argue there are free filing programs that already exist.
But so far, Werfel says, “people are telling us that they found it to be quick and easy, and everyone certainly loves that it’s free. And their No. 1 question is: Are we going to have this again next year?”…
After years of looking the other way at tax cheating by the wealthy, especially under Trump, @POTUS Biden has the @IRSnews focused on enforcing our tax laws.
My piece for @thenation today has the goods:https://t.co/ySGWsfJfWs— David Cay Johnston (@DavidCayJ) March 1, 2024
Good explainer from David Cay Johnson, at the Nation — “The IRS Finally Takes the Gloves Off”:
FAFO Open Thread: The IRS Announces It Will Come After Rich Tax CheatsPost + Comments (126)