IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with a boost in federal funding and the help of artificial intelligence tools, the agency has new means of targeting wealthy people who have “cut corners” on their taxes.

“If you pay your taxes on time it should be particularly frustrating when you see that wealthy filers are not,” Werfel told reporters in a call previewing the announcement. He said 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250,000 each in back taxes and 75 large business partnerships that have assets of roughly $10 billion on average are targeted for the new “compliance efforts.”

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[–] 96 points 3 years ago (5 children)

Conservative SCOTUS ruling making taxation of the wealthy unconstitutional in 3... 2...

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  • [–] 42 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    I wonder, given the whole equal protection thing….

    Could we sue the IRS for damages? I mean, this is the fed government’s revenue. Them running out of money…. And running up the debt affects us negatively….

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    [–] 90 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Can't wait for people in red states making <$50k to be really mad about this for some reason

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  • [–] 75 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Good but can we also do the billionaires?

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  • [–] 19 points 3 years ago

    They won't go after those from fear or being defunded further..

    Conservative's are agreeing to go after millionaires just to anger their base, the poor who think they'd be millionaires if it wasn't for all this "socialism".

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  • [–] 60 points 3 years ago (12 children)

    Token victims chosen to placate the masses.

    Millionaires are still fucking peasants to the ruling class.

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  • [–] 59 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    There's surely a name for when people react with disdain to even the slightest move in the right direction.

    "Should have done it earlier" "Not enough" "It'll probably get shot down in court" "Why bother"

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  • [+] 25 points 3 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)
  • [–] 24 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    The difference in disposable capital between a millionaire and a billionaire is substantial. A millionaire might be able to drag out an audit and find clever loopholes.

    A billionaire will simply fund Republican candidates that will defund the IRS so that they never even see the audit.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Q:What's the difference between someone who has 1 million dollars and someone who has 1 billion dollars?

    A:Roughly a billion dollars.

    Really, it's practically the same at 10M.

    A billion is just so fucking much more that our brains have a hard time even conceptualizing it.

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  • [–] 58 points 3 years ago (16 children)

    Grover Norquist, who heads the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, said the IRS’ plan to pursue high wealth individuals does not preclude the IRS from eventually pursuing middle-income Americans for audits down the road.

    Lol love the complete lack of evidence with just a big ol dose of non sequiter fear-mongering, they MIGHT come for you next!!

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  • [–] 41 points 3 years ago* (3 children)

    how is it any different from now, when they come after us and NOT the rich? Like we never stopped getting policed that was rich privilege only, and only because of the complicated tax structures that open up to you once you start a business that has some cash throughput

    total fear-mongering like you say

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    They were coming for middle class people because we can't afford audit defense, or massive bullshit campaigns like "omg they're targeting conservatives!!"

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago* (2 children)

    I love that Republicans seem to have fully embraced a fear campaign based in the idea that if the rich can be forced to obey the law that yOu mIghT bE nExT as though they aren't also the people who gave police broad, sweeping powers to kick in our doors for any or no reason, to seize our money and then make us prove that we didn't commit crimes to get it, to engage in warrantless mass surveillance, to establish huge swaths of America where the 4th amendment just doesn't count if you "look like an illegal immigrant", to establish fetus checkpoints at state borders, to make a dog's opinion legally admissible in court if and only if that dog thinks you've committed a crime, and they're trying to let the police into your bedroom to make sure you're fucking correctly (in a cishet christian way).

    We who have been overpoliced our entire lives know what they mean when they say "they might come for you next". They mean that the police might overstep their bounds as thieftakers and thugs to keep the minorities in line and start coming for Real Americans (cishet white men) just because of a few little felonies.

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    [–] 57 points 3 years ago* (11 children)

    I'm a cpa, and from what I can tell I'm the only one on Lemmy, god help me, so I'll chime in.

    Partnerships with $10 billion assets are no joke so I would imagine they are businesses like real estate holding companies, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, things like that. Probably clients of a Big 4 like PWC Deloitte EY or KPMG.

    The thing about entities like that is that they tend to be insanely complicated with TONS of moving parts. They'll be dealing with complex financial instruments, partners coming in and out, financing structures that aren't at all straightforward (if you've seen Shark Tank Mr Wonderful is infamous for offering complex financing deals rather than straight equity deals) plus international tax complications, book/tax timing differences, and all kinds of other stuff I can't begin to get into.

    Oh, and that's just the tax side of it all. That's not even starting to talk about the actual accounting, recording the transactions, balance sheets, income statements, and so on, which is an enormous layer of complexity before we even think about tax. Zillions of moving parts with plenty of room for errors and omissions.

    Partnerships don't pay tax at the business level so the individuals who own them need to report the income and activity on their personal returns and pay tax at that level. It's not at all easy reporting their share of activity from entities like hedge funds and PE so plenty of mistakes are made, some quite substantial. Im guessing they are going to look at the partnerships first and compare to the biggest owners returns to make sure everything jives.

    I find this news great. Our industry often faces challenges due to time constraints, budget limitations, client-provided data quality, logistics, and so on. Unethical behavior is rare among practitioners, but there are some shady ones. Typically, we defer issues, leaving them for others to handle, which seldom result in consequences.

    Throughout my career, the IRS has never questioned our filed returns for individuals or businesses. We've received notices, mostly related to administrative matters rather than full audits.

    A strengthened IRS enhances compliance, but the accounting industry is strained with few professionals and a lack of future talent. We already cut corners for efficiency, so aiming for flawless accuracy could pose a significant problem. It's just another challenge to add to our list...

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    My spouse works for compliance and usually you are given a chance to right everything before it goes as far as being audited. Like you said, mostly administrative issues is taken care at the first level and it’s no biggie.

    So if someone is being audited something is already very wrong and the first level folks have sent the case to audits or even criminal investigations.

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  • [–] [S] 12 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    My issue with the taxman is that they have created and continue to allow those complications which only the rich can use, and therefore are elitist rules.

    I wish the feds would/could go back to a basic tax structure based on wealth/income alone ... where there's nowhere for the rich to hide.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    The thing is, much of the complexity is directly in response to the stunts jackasses have pulled over the decades, to prevent that from happening again.

    Complexity aside, focusing on sheer logistics, to do a true full scale 'drop your shorts and cough' audit, the auditor would need to cross-reference receipts and bank statements to financial statements, then to the business returns, and follow it all to the individual owners.

    That's a colossal task, and it's just too much work, not enough time to do it, and not enough qualified people to do it. Hopefully AI can assist in streamlining this process significantly in the future but who knows.

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    [–] 52 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    In totally unrelated news: the GOP has announced war on the IRS; "too long have they preyed upon this nation's most vulnerable!".

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  • [–] 38 points 3 years ago (8 children)

    why exactly isn't it normal to get taxes from the rich?

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  • [–] 30 points 3 years ago

    I heard an interview about this new effort. IRS agents used to be rewarded by case count. It's much easier to audit people who earn salaries because you know exactly what they earned from employers' reports. Rich people often have many sources of income that take time to investigate. Agents audit normal folks because it's easy while the rich lie and get away with it.

    The goal with this effort has been to change the incentive structure for agents to get the most money.

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    [–] 28 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Compliance means that if you made a mistake, the IRS will give you a chance to correct it. And if you decide not to fix it? then they come for your shit.

    If you don’t want them to come to take your shit, FOLLOW THE FUCKING LAW. So simple!!!!! Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be?

    These right wing nut jobs are something else. Haha.

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    [–] 26 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    In other news, 1600 millionaires have made significant donations to their Congressmen and paid lobbyists. Expect a new "The IRS is evil" campaign soon.

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    [–] 15 points 3 years ago

    "Plans to" ? okay...

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago

    So basically doing their job.

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  • [–] 10 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    So, they weren't doing it before? What the hell have they been doing this whole time?

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Good. Please do pay one's taxes and pursue those that do not.

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