U.S. Department of the Treasury, IRS Announce $1 Billion in Past-Due Taxes Collected from Millionaires:
Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that a new initiative to collect past-due tax debt from high-income, high-wealth individuals has reached a major milestone, with more than $1 billion recovered. This new initiative was made possible by resources from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.
The IRS in 2023 launched a new initiative to pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who have failed to pay recognized tax debt, with dozens of senior employees assigned to these cases. This campaign is concentrated among taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt.
“President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is increasing tax fairness and ensuring that all wealthy taxpayers pay the taxes they owe, just like working families do,” said U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen. “A new initiative to collect overdue taxes from a small group of wealthy taxpayers is already a major success, yielding more than $1 billion in revenue so far.”
In an initial success, the IRS announced last year that it had collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income, high-wealth individuals. The IRS then expanded this effort last fall to 1,600 additional high-income, high-wealth individuals. The IRS has assigned more than 1,500 of these 1,600 cases to senior employees, with more than $1 billion collected to date.
Prior to President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, more than a decade of budget cuts prevented the IRS from keeping pace with increasing complexity and ensuring that wealthy taxpayers, large corporations, and complex partnerships pay taxes owed under current law. The effort to pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who have failed to pay past-due tax debt is one of several initiatives the IRS has launched to improve tax fairness and reduce the deficit. [...]
Here’s a bit from The New York Times for those still reading it:
Daniel Werfel, the I.R.S. commissioner, said that because of the agency’s larger enforcement staff, it has been able to focus on tracking down and sending letters to wealthy taxpayers who owe money. In many cases, these result in threats of additional penalties until the taxpayers eventually pay their tax bills, he said.
Mr. Werfel said he believed many rich taxpayers had neglected to pay their bills because they thought the I.R.S. did not have the capacity to go after them.
“Our message for these taxpayers is that now that we are resourced, we can do the job of ensuring that they pay,” he said.
Julia Conley at Common Dreams: Democrats' IRS Crackdown on Millionaires Draws in $1 Billion
Joan McCarter at Daily Kos: IRS nabs $1 billion from rich tax cheats while GOP fights to defund it
