The nation's millionaires and billionaires are evading more than $150 billion a year in taxes, adding to growing government deficits and creating a "lack of fairness" in the tax system, according to the head of the Internal Revenue Service.
The IRS, with billions of dollars in new funding from Congress, has launched a sweeping crackdown on wealthy individuals, partnerships and large companies.
"When I look at what we call our tax gap, which is the amount of money owed versus what is paid for, millionaires and billionaires that either don't file or [are] underreporting their income, that's $150 billion of our tax gap," Werfel said.
The Inflation Reduction Act gave the IRS an $80 billion infusion, yet congressional Republicans won a deal last year to take $20 billion of the funding back.
The IRS is touting its early success with a program to collect unpaid taxes from millionaires.
So far, the IRS has collected more than $480 million from the group "and we are still going," Werfel said.
Danny Werfel, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), speaks after being ceremonially sworn in at the IRS headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, April 4, 2023. »
