Posted on 07/15/2014 9:37:04 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
The GOP-controlled House has slashed the budget for the Internal Revenue Service's tax enforcement division by $1.2 billion, a 25 percent cut that would mean fewer audits of taxpayers and make it more likely that people who cheat on their taxes will get away with it.
The House approved the cuts by voice vote after little debate Monday night as it took up a $21 billion spending bill that sets the IRS budget.
The cuts reflect GOP outrage over the agency's scrutiny of tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status and frustration over the agency's failure to produce thousands of emails by Lois Lerner, the official formerly in charge of the IRS division that processes applications for tax-exempt status.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
The fact that they have a billion dollars to cut says they get too much.
That’s exactly the move I suggested a while back. I’m glad my representative is listening!
and make it less likely to punish taxpayers based on political views.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer Department....
The guy who cheats on his taxes is no threat to me.
and make it more likely that people who cheat on their taxes will get away with it.”
Of course that’s what will happen, right ABC?
Maybe they can let go all of the people using the IRS as a political weapon, and use that money to keep up with the tax cheats.
>>That’s exactly the move I suggested a while back. <<
I’d appreciate a discussion on how to go about using the power of the purse if the GOP takes the Senate in November, because I think that’s the biggest leverage the GOP has over President Obama.
For example, I’ve suggested breaking the omnibus spending bills (and Continuing Resolutions) up into departmental budgets and passing them separately. And beyond that, perhaps breaking out essential functions of the departments and passing budgets for those items first.
If the President tries to veto, for example, a continuation of Social Security payments, or interest payments on the debt, or military salaries, he will (I hope) be pilloried for such vetoes. And if he does veto them, what are the chances that Congressional Dems up for re-election in 2016 will support him and vote to uphold those vetoes?
Going at it in that way should establish a pattern of Obama vetoing followed by Dem override votes that might just break the logjam. Plus, that approach has the benefit of putting the low priority items (the Dept of Education comes to mind) at the end of the process, where they might never be funded at all by the GOP.
The power of the purse is huge, if the GOP can figure out how best to use it. One thing I’m sure of, these huge multi-departmental funding bills won’t do the job.
Please tell ABC, “It takes a tax cheat to know a tax cheat.” The projectionist slime balls.
Better news: The 1-in-104 chance of being called on the carpet vastly overstates the severity of the situation. Fully 70% of all audits are handled by mail, not by mano a mano combat with an IRS agent. And if your return doesn’t include income from a business, rental real estate or a farm, or employee business expense write-offs, the basic 1-in-104 chance of being challenged dwindles to just 1-in-250.
Another piece of rarely reported good news: Each year, tens of thousands of taxpayers walk out of an audit with a check from the government. In 2013, for example, almost 40,000 audits resulted in refunds totaling nearly $950 million. And 9% of all audits end with the conclusion that everything is hunky-dory: no change in what the taxpayer owes Uncle Sam.
Doesn’t it have to be approved by the Senate and Obama ISIS a traitor.
Oh no!
They won’t be able to pay the IT guy who is looking for the
missing emails.
The power of the purse resides in the house, for a reason, it can be replaced completely every other year. Senate cannot present funding bills except by fraud, see zerocare.
The biggest tax cheats WORK FOR THE IRS!
Will their bonuses be affected?
Yeah. Now let’s strip the EPA of every dime that dept has. Then they can defund the dept of Eduction
>>Now let’s strip the EPA of every dime that dept has. Then they can defund the dept of Eduction<<
The Education Department would probably be nearly dead last on my list of funding priorities as well, the entire department. Just zero it out and return control of education completely to the 50 state governments. Get the feds out of education.
And that would be possible with department-by-department funding bills. Just don’t pass a Dept of Ed budget at all.
As for the EPA, they probably (?) do have some essential functions, although I suspect most of those deemed truly essential could be diverted back to the 50 states as well. To the extent that they perform an essential nationwide service (and limiting the types of toilets or light bulbs or gas cans that can be produced are not among these, by the way), those essential services could be funded as line items in a much-reduced EPA budget. To the extent they were truly essential, the President and/or the Congressional Dems would be under extreme pressure to approve them. The rest of the EPA’s present functions just wouldn’t be funded.
I think this would work, but I’d appreciate it if others would critique it or offer possible elaborations. It’s germane to the IRS cutback in the article under discussion, but I think they should have gone after it in a different manner, i.e., by breaking the entire IRS budget out of the overall federal budget and then going after the line items that are being abused, rather than the tax collection effort itself.
Frankly, the 25% reduction effort looks like publicity seeking, rather than an honest effort to rein in the IRS.
Don’t you just love the way ABC news campaigns against this with all the negatives.
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