The Biden administration is underwater after the IRS is exposed for only targeting the poor while millionaires can reportedly get away unscathed.
In the 2022 study of IRS tax audit data, it was revealed that IRS only targets the lowest income bracket and that taxpayers under the said bracket are five times more likely to face an audit that would be members of the highest income bracket.
In an official statement released by National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins regarding the report during an annual report to Congress, Erin claimed that “the IRS correspondence audit process is structured to expend the least amount of resources to conduct the largest number of examinations – resulting in the lowest level of customer service to taxpayers having the greatest need for assistance.”
Each month, the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University is examining internal IRS management reports. However, the group found different trends upon reviewing the 2022 data.
The group also looked at the audits considering the agency is reportedly relying more on automatically produced letters sent to taxpayers.
IRS targeted poorest taxpayers while millionaires went mostly unscathed in 2022: report https://t.co/eCwKfoPcCo
— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 8, 2023
In an exclusive report published by Fox News, “the data showed that the IRS conducted 85% of its audits through these letters, which request additional information and documentation related to specific items of interest. Overall audits dropped from 659,003 in FY 2021 to 626,204 in FY 2022 out of 164 million income tax returns filed last year.”
“The rate of income tax audits for those in the lowest income bracket hit 12.7 per 1,000, compared to 2.3 per 1,000 among those in the highest – a nearly five-fold increase. The odds of a millionaire facing an audit were around 1.1%. This roughly matched similar numbers – 13 per 1,000, and 2.6 per 1,000, respectively – during FY 2021, but that rate nearly doubled from FY 2020, when the lowest income bracket saw 7.9 audits per 1,000,” Fox News reported.
According to the TRAC report, the “severe budget cutbacks over the years,” forcing the IRS to shift its focus to “easy marks in an era when IRS increasingly relies upon correspondence audits yet doesn’t have the resources to assist taxpayers or answer their questions” was caused by the lack of attention toward millionaires.
Amid the controversy, A White House spokesperson released a statement, claiming that”President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which is only beginning to build enforcement for wealthy Americans, will finally force wealthy tax cheats to pay their fair share while making it easier for working Americans to get their tax refunds.”
The spokesperson also blasted the Republicans, blaming them for attacking IRS funding “for years.” According to the spokesperson, millionaire tax cheats account for $163 billion in tax evasion per year.
