Posted on 08/14/2022 8:42:56 AM PDT by SeafoodGumbo
The Biden administration has promised not to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year. And despite estimates from official congressional scorekeepers that the Schumer-Manchin-Biden tax increase indeed would raise taxes on those Americans, the administration has doubled down on the claim as a final vote nears on Democrats’ bill.
...
But considering the sheer magnitude of 87,000 new IRS agents and an estimated $204 billion in new revenues from enforcement, is it possible for all those new audits and revenues to involve only taxpayers making over $400,000?
—Returning to 2010 audit rates for all individuals making over $400,000 would generate only 28%, or $9.9 billion, out of the estimated $35.3 billion in new IRS enforcement revenues in 2031.
—Even increasing recent audit rates 30-fold for taxpayers making over $400,000—including 100% audit rates on taxpayers with incomes over $10 million—still would fall more than 20% short of raising the estimated $35.3 billion in new revenues in 2031.
Note: This assumes a 98% increase in the number of tax filers making over $400,000 between 2019 and 2031, based on annual growth rates between 2014 and 2019. Audit rates from 2010 to 2019 by income group and additional tax per individual tax return audited for 2021 is available here from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
Estimated revenues from a 30-fold increase in audits almost certainly is overstated, since 30% to 40% percent of audits in these income groups result in no additional tax being owed, and audits already target returns with higher likelihoods of underpayments.
—Auditing every single taxpayer with annual income over $1 million would require only 25,000 new IRS enforcement agents, but Democrats’ bill calls for 87,000 new agents. What will all those extra agents be doing?
Note: Estimates are based on the Treasury Department’s estimated new full-time-equivalent agents, and the Government Accountability Office’s estimated hours per audit by individual income level.
Calculations conservatively assume that only 57.3% of the Treasury Department’s estimated 86,852 new IRS agents (49,754 in total) would be assigned to enforcement, based on $45.6 billion of the bill’s $79.6 billion increase for the Internal Revenue Service dedicated to enforcement.
Calculations also assume that 8.9% of IRS enforcement agents would be assigned to corporate audits, based on the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that corporations account for 8.9% of the tax gap. Enforcement agents are assumed to spend 75% of their paid time auditing tax returns.
Despite the Biden administration’s claims, it’s almost certain that households making less than $400,000 a year would face increased audits under Democrats’ bill.
And that seems to be the true intent of the IRS. According to a 2021 report from the Government Accountability Office, “From fiscal years 2010 to 2021, the majority of the additional taxes IRS recommended from audits came from taxpayers with incomes below $200,000.”
...
Prediction: The tax laws will be expanded to cover “climate change” issues, and other matters upon which Americans have no desire to participate. Because everyone has to file tax returns, everyone will be required to show compliance — or else.
Target One: Trump family, Trump family businesses, and anyone doing business with them.
Trump supporters at the top of the list.
Heritage eliminates ALL business taxes from their analysis. Why? Because business taxes account for the difference they are looking for.
They will audit anyone they damn well please
Except everyone doesn’t file tax returns
When your performance evaluation is based on the amount of money you brought in from auditing taxpayers, what ya gonna do?
Those 87,000 are not auditors. No finance or accounting is specified in the job description. Firearms and killing Americans is the focus of the job description.
This is Obama’s army: “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.”
I always wondered about the Administration use of the term “individuals” with income less than $400K. I assume the Administration does NOT mean joint tax returns. Tax returns files jointly will be income far less than 400K.
How about Mao’s: Kill one monkey to scare ten.
Hit a few UBER / LYFT drivers in scattered cities.
Selected Swap Meet vendors, especially those with MVE items for sale.
Maybe browse Craig’s List for a monkey.
Don’t know about Day Laborers. But probably those who hire them.
ETC.
Make a big show of it. Make sure it is publicized.
There may be a work-around for that. Based on how the leftists gave away “Covid Relief” checks to non-filers.
But, those people are under control already, irredeemably yoked to the munificence of the welfare state. It’s the remaining free people which the left wants to subjugate.
You may not have to file a federal income tax return if your income is below a certain amount. But, you must file a tax return to claim a refundable tax credit or a refund for withheld income tax. I haven't filed one in over 20 years with the current income cap.
Rich people have better people doing their taxes than work at the IRS. It’s a lot easier to go after middle class / small business owners
What most people forget is the left loves playing word games. And while they are not raising the income tax of people making under $400,000 they are indeed raising all the other taxes we face in the USA. But in their minds they are keeping their promise.
The force needed for the Warren Wealth Confiscation Tax seizures. This is the force needed to “make all Americans Equal.”
Obama’s promised Brownshirts.
If you are a white male age 35 to 70 making decent money, you will be audited. Make sure your social media is in tact or gone.
“But considering the sheer magnitude of 87,000 new IRS agents and an estimated $204 billion in new revenues from enforcement...”
And that’s the key, to legitimize the tax system with the enforcement that will be purposely subjective with many of those making over the $400K amount determining who will be taxed.
It’s hard to believe, but America was founded to avoid high taxation and for religious freedoms they didn’t have in Europe. Tack that on to the creation of more taxes that started the revolutionary war and further taxation to fund the civil war, and you’d think the country would learn one of two things, at least:
first that to use tax gained money to fund things that are there just to be destroyed is not productive. And secondly people who perpetuate that theory should not be in charge of something of worth just to destroy it at the someone else’s expense.
If you ran a lumber business would it be profitable to burn all the trees you selected?
And when we are not actually fighting the war and getting people killed and blowing things up, we are tossing money into lost revenue like in the Ukraine, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea...wars that are not ours.
Question: If the government wants to toss money away, why not use it at home instead of finding more and more ways it needs to here and sending the cash somewhere else?
Because the people in charge are making so much they don’t need to be concerned. They don’t play the game, they own the stadium.
wy69
I have heard from a few CPAs and other tax return preparers about this no crop of IRS hires. The expectation is that help line services will be improved, processing backlog will be caught up,.
No problem with expectations; or even having expectations.
The problem is that results will fall far short of the promises being made by Congress and the IRS.
But tax practitioners might be entering a Golden Age of taxpayer representation. Lots of work coming!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.