I.R.S. Audits Are at a Record Low. Trump’s Cuts Could Make Them Even Rarer.

[Say it aint so]

The Internal Revenue Service’s audit rate has been lower this decade than in most taxpayers’ lifetimes, a New York Times analysis shows, and if the Trump administration follows through with plans to cut the agency’s work force, audits will almost certainly become even rarer.​

The most recent I.R.S. data shows the audit rate of individual taxpayers has decreased by about two-thirds since 2010. --NYTIMES​

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In light of this, in little over a year after Biden's focus to crack down on high income tax delinquents and cheats:

IRS tops $1 billion in past-due taxes collected from millionaires; compliance efforts continue involving high-wealth groups, corporations, partnerships​

WASHINGTON — As part of continuing compliance efforts under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Internal Revenue Service today announced the agency has surpassed the $1 billion mark in collections from high-wealth taxpayers with past-due taxes.​

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As part of larger efforts taking place, the IRS has stepped up activity specifically on 1,600 individuals whose incomes were more than $1 million per year and who each owed the IRS more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt. Since last fall, this IRS compliance effort has generated more than $1 billion in collections from this group, with work continuing in this area.​

Remember when Obama focused on closing tax loop holes in the Bahamas or Cayman Islands?

Republicans poo poo'ed that too.

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IRS funding is something the GOP has been cutting since 2010. Is not part revenue, or lack thereof part of the debt problem?
Why would anyone jettison the idea of going after those of high income who are cheating the system? Or is that a rhetorical question?

 

[rambot]

This adminstration is ruling SPECIFICALLY and explicitly for the 1%. As opposed to even just doing SOMETHING to help the working man, they have been attacked or ignored.

 

[Belk]

This adminstration is ruling SPECIFICALLY and explicitly for the 1%. As opposed to even just doing SOMETHING to help the working man, they have been attacked or ignored.

Duh!

 

[Aryeh Jay]

This adminstration is ruling SPECIFICALLY and explicitly for the 1%. As opposed to even just doing SOMETHING to help the working man, they have been attacked or ignored.

I don't mind policies that benefit the 1% because those policies do trickle down to the 10%.

Every one else, well Walmart is hiring I think.

 

[essentialsaltes]

See also.

Remember the extra IRS hires? They were put to good use. (July 2024)

IRS reports collecting $1 billion from rich households’ back taxes​

For years, the tax agency simply didn’t try collecting sizable debts owed by 1,600 people with annual incomes of at least $1 million.

“The tax bill wasn’t even in dispute — the taxes were clearly owed by these people,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a call with reporters. “But we didn’t have the people or the resources. … It takes time and staffing to work through these cases.”

Some of [the new hires that came with IRS funding in the Inflation Reduction Act] have focused their efforts on specific groups of tax delinquents, including a group of 1,600 households with annual incomes above $1 million who were all known to owe at least $250,000 in back taxes, based on their previous tax returns.

[A few delinquents paid up immediately.] Others took much more effort, and in some cases, levies on the taxpayers’ assets to collect the money. Werfel described months of letters back and forth between the IRS’s new agents and the millionaires’ accountants and lawyers.

But now... (Mar 2025)

From the "Feature not a Bug" files:

IRS staff cuts mean less scrutiny for ultra-wealthy, officials warn​

The Internal Revenue Service’s burgeoning efforts to more closely inspect the taxes of some of the country’s richest people and most powerful companies are stalling, thanks to layoffs imposed by the Trump administration, say current and former IRS employees.

It’s a sharp turnaround from 2022, when Congress gave the IRS $80 billion over a decade under the Inflation Reduction Act, including funds to beef up its auditing of the wealthiest Americans.