More than two dozen House Democrats are demanding that congressional leaders secure adequate funding for the Internal Revenue Service in an upcoming appropriations bill to ensure that "wealthy tax cheats" like President Donald Trump are no longer able to skirt their obligations while the poor continue to face intense government scrutiny.
In a letter (pdf) to Democratic and Republican leaders on Monday, 25 House Democrats led by Reps. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Judy Chu (D-Calif.) called for a fiscal year 2021 "funding level of $12.1 billion for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including $5.2 billion for enforcement activities that are critical to ensuring compliance."
"Recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office underscore the importance of IRS enforcement activities, noting that increasing the IRS's budget to investigate high-income individuals would more than pay for itself by allowing the IRS to effectively collect unpaid taxes owed by the wealthiest individuals," the lawmakers noted.
"Millionaire tax dodgers like Donald Trump get away with paying little to no federal income tax in part because IRS funding has dropped over 20% since 2010," Chu tweeted Monday, referring to recent New York Times reporting showing that Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017.
As Americans’ trust in the IRS plummets, @RepJudyChu and I are leading 25 House members calling on congressional leadership to increase IRS funding to after rich tax cheats. pic.twitter.com/Hr53L0rUDE — Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) November 30, 2020
In July, as Common Dreams reported, a CBO report commissioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) found that the amount of unpaid taxes from 2011 to 2013 averaged over $380 billion per year. "Enforcement activity for many high-income nonfilers," the CBO found, "has been reduced to a series of notices."
The CBO analysis came on the heels of reporting by ProPublica which found that, given the high costs of auditing the rich, the IRS now "audits the working poor at about the same rate as the wealthiest 1%."
"The IRS has acknowledged that's true," ProPublica noted, "but professes it can't change anything unless it is given more money."
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To bolster their demand for increased funding, the group of House Democrats pointed to the CBO's conclusion that "increasing the examinations and collections budget by $20 billion over 10 years increases revenues by $61 billion, and if it is increased by $40 billion over 10 years it would increase revenues by $103 billion."
"This is a matter of tax fairness," the lawmakers wrote. "The IRS should not continue an enforcement program focused on low-income taxpayers, singling out Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients, just because it is cheaper and easier."
Read the House Democrats' full letter:
snakewaswolf on December 1st, 2020 at 13:30 UTC »
It’s ridiculous that the agency responsible for collecting taxes that keep us solvent has been politicized as the bad guys by the party of fiscal conservatism.
Help2021 on December 1st, 2020 at 12:34 UTC »
It'll more than pay for itself.
oapster79 on December 1st, 2020 at 12:10 UTC »
I paid more than $750.
We need to reduce cheating sure but we need to strengthen tax laws too.