Nearly half of IRS audits aimed at poorest
taxpayers: Study
Washington Times,
by
Stephen Dinan
Original Article
Posted By: Ribicon,
3/9/2022 9:11:43 AM
Nearly half of all audits the IRS conducted in 2021 were aimed at the country’s poorest taxpayers, according to a new study that called the ratio unfair. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) said the IRS conducted nearly 660,000 audits in the last fiscal year, and about 307,000 of them targeted taxpayers who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, aimed at the working poor.(Snip)“Does it make sense from either an equity or revenue standpoint to focus IRS’s limited firepower on the poorest taxpayers among us–those with incomes so low they have filed returns claiming an anti-poverty earned income tax credit? This question alone raises profound issues,”
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Delilah 3/9/2022 9:18:13 AM (No. 1094674)
Years ago I worked with a guy who had one child but every year he added another dependent to his RS return until he had a dozen. The IRS finally caught up with him. So the lower income people do cheat.
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
mifla 3/9/2022 9:20:16 AM (No. 1094679)
Given the amount of fraud associated with the EITC, they are looking in the right place. Lots of other places to look as well. Scrap the tax code and replace it with a national sales tax. Then get rid of the IRS.
16 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
snowoutlaw 3/9/2022 9:22:50 AM (No. 1094687)
I'd like to hear how many of these 307K resulted in finding fraud, was it 24% ($16 billion) ? Low hanging fruit I'd say.
5 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
lakerman1 3/9/2022 9:34:40 AM (No. 1094704)
If you watch Judge Judy, you will know that certain women negotiate with dudes over tax credits.
7 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
DVC 3/9/2022 9:38:58 AM (No. 1094707)
Looking to get blood from stones. Stupid.
2 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
judy 3/9/2022 9:40:15 AM (No. 1094709)
Hmmmm wealthy people have lawyers!!!! The author should have followed up & informed us the results. Low income people cheat too! He wrote like they should be given a pass???
8 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
downnout 3/9/2022 9:42:00 AM (No. 1094712)
The EITC has a very high level of fraud.
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Corndoggies 3/9/2022 9:48:49 AM (No. 1094725)
Illegals add nieces and nephews who still live in Mexico. This fraud was uncovered by an Indianapolis tv station and a ticked off IRS agent several years ago. Was anything changed? You know the answer to that.
11 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
PageTurner 3/9/2022 9:50:15 AM (No. 1094727)
It's not about the money. The idea is to create terror.
The poor are easiest to prosecute and jail, too.
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
wilarrbie 3/9/2022 9:51:50 AM (No. 1094733)
For the same reason Willie Sutton robs banks. The poor deserve help, but not a free pass. Maybe Stephen agrees with the $900 shoplifting rule too.
6 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Rich323 3/9/2022 9:59:20 AM (No. 1094738)
Hopefully they are auditing illegals claiming the child tax credits. This has been a problem for decades and needs to stop.
9 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DaBigGuy 3/9/2022 10:16:37 AM (No. 1094766)
These are primarily correspondence audits testing compliance in an area of historic massive fraud (EITC). The problem was Congress turning the tax code into a welfare code in the 1970s using EITC, and expanding it ever since through larger refundable tax credits, thus increasing the amount of fraud. The fraud includes dependent swapping, claiming illegitimate dependents, married couples both claiming head of household, underreporting of income, etc. It is not limited to just IRS dealings. The cheaters also use these false returns to milk other government agencies for various subsidies and benefits, amounting to ten of thousands of perks per individual every year.
If the IRS can weed some of this out with a 5 hour correspondence audit, more power to them. They may not be able to get the blood back from particular turnips, but they could save taxpayers a lot of blood down the road by cutting off their gravy train now. Go for it.
7 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
smokincol 3/9/2022 11:52:32 AM (No. 1094916)
"Nearly half of IRS audits aimed at poorest taxpayers: Study" - that is an absolutely true statement - what's the old saying: the most vulnerable take the most punishment ... and ... the Uncle Sam knows that to be absolutely true
0 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
hershey 3/9/2022 12:36:16 PM (No. 1094973)
And tell me again why Al Sharpton who owes millions is still not in jail???
6 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Debrawr 3/9/2022 12:42:30 PM (No. 1094981)
IRS must look the other way, because....Equity.
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
skacmar 3/9/2022 5:08:45 PM (No. 1095139)
Just because you are "poor" does not mean you should be immune from the same audits that everyone else is subject to. I have seen too many people I know making $20,000 per year getting an $11,000 tax refund each year to feel bad about some of them maybe getting audited. Having a child should not entitle you to tons of extra free money on your tax return at government (and my) expense. Many of these people paid little or no income tax in the first place. How do they warrant a gigantic refund? Get rid of the child tax credits and the Earned Income Tax Credit which lead people to make fraudulent tax claims every year. Get rid of this stuff, then I will feel bad about "poor" people being audited by the IRS.
0 people like this.
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Comments:
This question raises the profound issue of why no leader has scrapped the IRS entirely, or at least radically overhauled a very costly tax code that freely allows The Poor to cheat, and thus receive refunds totaling multiples of what they might have paid in, and for the 0.1% to avoid paying taxes at all through charitable trusts and other dodges.