• The Treasury Department and the IRS announced the collection of more than $1 billion in tax debt from high-income individuals over the past year.
  • In September, the IRS announced plans to expand its scrutiny of those making more than $1 million annually with more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt.
  • However, the funding enacted in 2022 that is allowing the IRS to pursue its plans still has its critics, particularly among congressional Republicans.
  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    However, the funding enacted in 2022 that is allowing the IRS to pursue its plans still has its critics, particularly among congressional Republicans.

    “How dare they raise revenue from the tax cheats who vote for us!”

  • n2burns@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    This is the one that always gets me about “small government” people. They talk about inefficiencies and say, “the private sector can do it better,” which is debatable because comparing money and service is subjective (IMHO, they’re still wrong, but that’s besides the point). Yet most of them don’t want to properly fund tax administrators, when time and time again, they’ve shown they’re a money multiplier. If you want a more basic, striped down tax code, I once again disagree, but fine, that’s your opinion. However, in our current tax system enforcement is underfunded, and I think it just shows their true intent to enrich the wealthy.

    • laverabe@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I mean the small government types are not the ones who typically pay attention to what actually is shown to work or not work.

      Their view is big govt needs big taxes for big spending and big IRS steals people’s hard earned money. No counterpoint or evidence will ever persuade them otherwise because it’s a core belief that is largely beyond questioning.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      All enforcement is underfunded except the armed law enforcement against citizens. The enforcement of laws and corporations should be beefed up. And the start from big to small. Now enforcement just focusses on small companies as they don’t have big legal teams and can be bullied into submission.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      They talk about inefficiencies and say, “the private sector can do it better,”

      The private sector generates profits, which can then be translated into passive incomes for lenders and dividend recipients. The public sector isn’t explicitly designed to provide steadily increasing passive incomes to American plutocrats. That’s the big difference.

      However, in our current tax system enforcement is underfunded

      Laws are for little people. The purpose of the IRS should be to make low-income tax credits and other poverty relief measures a political promise the smallest possible material benefit. It shouldn’t be to claw back profits from the plutocrat class. Government should exist to guarantee the collection of rents from the working class and defend the property of the landlord class by extracting additional rents from the working class.

      • rekorse@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’m confused, you think the IRS should be protecting the wealthy from the working class?

    • hperrin@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      You can make a more basic stripped down tax code that’s still fair. What I’d like to see is instead of a stepped progressive tax rate, tax each dollar based on a function that approaches 100% somewhere around a million dollars. So maybe you can get another dollar by taking the next million, then one more by taking ten million, then the next one by taking a hundred million.

  • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I’m a Fiscally Responsible Republican and this is HORRIBLE! We would be MUCH better off if instead of having Millionaires and Billionaires paying Taxes we instead had HOMELESS MOTHERS WHO HAVE NO MONEY paying Taxes!

    • laverabe@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Political control is largely a byproduct of media control/propaganda. No amount of reason will protect against never ending repetition of lies. (ie: Fox news profit model)

      Im a Fiscally Responsible Republican and this is HORRIBLE! We would be MUCH better off if instead of having Job producers paying Taxes we instead had welfare queens and freeloaders paying Taxes!

      It’s not true, but if I repeat the narrative 100x and the truth only once, the narrative wins.

  • thenextguy@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    You know what they say…

    A billion here, a billion there, eventually you’re talking about real money.

    • GluWu@lemm.ee
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      Only need another to do it 13 more times and they can cover their own costs for the year. 812 more times and they can cover the defense budget for the year.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      I imagine the IRS is going after millionaires for the same reason it goes after poor and lower middle class people: they lack the resources to mount a defense.

      Billionaires have enough money that they could stall indefinitely. Or at least until they can fund a president that will just pardon them.

      The only cure for billionaires is the guillotine.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        The only cure for billionaires (that helps everyone else) is to raise their flat tax rate to 70% … like it used to be.

        • d00phy@lemmy.world
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          In 1944, the highest tax rate was 94%! By 1953, it had dropped. To 92%. We need to go back to that. The richest will find ways around it, but that’s not a reason not to do it.

    • Bassman1805@lemmy.world
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      This headline uses “millionaires” to mean “people with over a million dollars in annual income” rather than “people with over a million dollars in net worth”

      That’s not your run of the mill “successful career with a healthy 401k” millionaire, that’s at least ten-millionaires, mostly hundred-millionaires, and possibly some billionaires by net worth.

  • aceshigh@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    … only $1b? That’s it? That number seems really low for millionaires.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    However, the funding enacted in 2022 that is allowing the IRS to pursue its plans still has its critics, particularly among congressional Republicans.

    I.e. Convicted and yet to be convicted tax criminals