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  • Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else
    Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and Cheat Everybody Else
    by David Cay Johnston
  • The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions--and What You Can Do About It
    The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions--and What You Can Do About It
    by Charles Lewis
  • The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You
    The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You
    by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele
  • Reward: Collecting Millions for Reporting Tax Evasion, Your Complete Guide to the IRS Whistleblower Reward Program
    Reward: Collecting Millions for Reporting Tax Evasion, Your Complete Guide to the IRS Whistleblower Reward Program
    by Joel D. Hesch
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Friday
Jun172011

Aiding Tax Cheats by Hobbling the IRS

AuthorDavid Callahan

The Obama Administration has been working hard to stop the epidemic of tax cheating, which is so bad that the IRS fails to bring in 15 percent of all revenue owed to the U.S. Treasury. It has launched a wide ranging crackdown on tax cheats who stash cash in overseas accounts and it has dramatically stepped up audits on wealthy filers, as we wrote about here earlier.

Most importantly, the Obama Administration has sought to bolster the IRS's enforcement capacity, arguing that every dollar spent in this area helps reduce the deficit many times over. The Administration's current budget request would raise the IRS budget from $12.1 billion to $13.3 billion.

But conservative in Congress are pushing in the exact opposite direction. Just yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee cut $600 million from the IRS's current budget. In March testimony, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman warned that cuts of this magnitude would mean $4 billion lost to tax cheats.

In other words, for every dollar Republicans want to cut from the IRS budget, the government will lose over six dollars. Why would anyone see this as a good deal? Especially if they purport to be a deficit hawk?

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DateFriday, June 17, 2011 at 1:34PM |

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