Crime IRS’s Most Wanted - The Middle Class is Targeted by Joe Biden and the Democratic Party

[Whippy McGee]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/irs-tax-collectors-audit-middle-class-tigta-5071d622

Sixty-three percent of new audits last year were aimed at middle-class filers.

The Internal Revenue Service got an audit of its own in time for Tax Day, and two irregularities jump out. President Biden's plan to hire a new army of tax collectors is falling flat, and the agents already at work are targeting the middle class.

Those are two findings of the IRS's watchdog, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Tigta). The report examines IRS progress on mandates from the Biden Administration backed by tens of billions in new funding. The first supposed goal was to audit more ultrawealthy and fewer middle-class filers, but it's not going so well.

By last December the IRS decided that it wouldn't begin tracking its progress until later this year. That's because the agency has been slow to shift its focus to high-income taxpayers, who make up a small share of total filings. Its April 2023 strategic plan pledged that future audits would disproportionately target individuals making at least $400,000, but "did not include specifics on how the IRS was going to ensure it met this commitment," says Tigta.

The most recent data suggests the IRS is still focused on the middle class. As of last summer, 63% of new audits targeted taxpayers with income of less than $200,000. Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of audits covered filers earning less than $1 million. Don't forget to save those charitable-giving receipts.

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We told you so. This is what the Democrats always do. They target the Middle Class as improving your station in life and not needed the government to provide basic necessities take Americans out of their control.

Also remember, they are now armed and they can revoke your traveling privileges.

When Joe Biden promised exactly this event would not happen... how many of you believed him?

The IRS is stronger that ever and they are coming for the Middle Class.

 

[WhiteMousse]

While I agree with you that this is unacceptable, I have to say I don't think this would have NOT been the case were we to have a republican president.

This isn't a Democrat problem, it's a rich people problem.

 

[Rational Poster]

While I agree with you that this is unacceptable, I have to say I don't think this would have NOT been the case were we to have a republican president.

This isn't a Democrat problem, it's a rich people problem.

The reality is that auditing middle class tax returns is just way easier because they're nowhere near as complicated. One agent can audit hundreds if not thousands per year on their own.

Where auditing the tax returns of one rich person takes significantly more effort and resources and could take months or even years just for the one year audit.

Then you couple that with Republican self-sabotage policy in regards to funding the IRS and you have the current situation where they only have the resources and manpower for easier audits. They do what they can with what they've got just like everyone else.

If you actually want the IRS to go after the wealthy, you're going to have to start supporting funding it.

 

[Whippy McGee]

Joe Biden promised the agents would not be targeting the Middle Class. That is exactly what they are doing.

Joe Biden lied.

 

[Jack V Savage]

While I agree with you that this is unacceptable, I have to say I don't think this would have NOT been the case were we to have a republican president.

This isn't a Democrat problem, it's a rich people problem.

What do you think is unacceptable?

I don't really understand the pro-theft position here. Can anyone explain why they'd favor letting people cheat on their taxes rather than just lowering rates?

 

[Jack V Savage]

Joe Biden promised the agents would not be targeting the Middle Class. That is exactly what they are doing.

Joe Biden lied.

No, you're just doing the math wrong (or falling for the WSJ trying to trick you). What percentage of filers are in the top 1% and what percentage are in the bottom 99%? I know you can figure this one out.

 

[Whippy McGee]

No, you're just doing the math wrong (or falling for the WSJ trying to trick you). What percentage of filers are in the top 1% and what percentage are in the bottom 99%? I know you can figure this one out.

^^^^ The Democratic Party's resident bot, Hack Savage, has arrived to carry Joe Biden's water.

Joe Biden specifically stated multiple times that they would not be used to target the Middle Class. He lied.

 

[Jack V Savage]

^^^^ The Democratic Party's resident bot, Hack Savage, has arrived to carry Joe Biden's water.

Joe Biden specifically stated multiple times that they would not be used to target the Middle Class. He lied.

OK, but childish personal attacks aside, you just did the math wrong.

 

[nostradumbass]

Well yeah, nobody actually believed they were arming IRS agents and going after venmo transactions to ensure "the rich pay their fair share". Rich people aren't hiding and funneling money through venmo, and they have accountants doing their taxes to use every loophole. The middle class were always the target.

Good news for dems is their voters will swallow a knife before ever admitting they got duped again and played like a bitch, and will just shift over to why the middle class need to be taken down a peg.

 

[WhiteMousse]

What do you think is unacceptable?

I don't really understand the pro-theft position here. Can anyone explain why they'd favor letting people cheat on their taxes rather than just lowering rates?

I'm not in support of any theft. My comment was directed at the emphasis of audits on the middle class as opposed to upper, but that doesn't mean I think people should cheat on their taxes. I'm in support of lowering rates.

 

[Jack V Savage]

I'm not in support of any theft. My comment was directed at the emphasis of audits on the middle class as opposed to upper, but that doesn't mean I think people should cheat on their taxes. I'm in support of lowering rates.

There are a lot more people in the middle class than upper (especially since upper is defined as around the top 1% here). There has been increased and disproportionate emphasis on catching rich tax cheats, but it would be almost impossible to properly enforce the law and not have most audits be of sub-1% earners. Think about it. If 100% of the top 1% were audited, and 2% of the other 99% were audited, you'd have two-thirds of audits be of the bottom 99% (and that hypothetical example would be *more* extreme than the real numbers).

 

[emefer]

^^^^ The Democratic Party's resident bot, Hack Savage, has arrived to carry Joe Biden's water.

Joe Biden specifically stated multiple times that they would not be used to target the Middle Class. He lied.

You just got a free math lesson. You should be thanking Jack

 

[The XL]

Pretty much everything being done is with the intention of destroying the middle class. Being targeted by the IRS, the nonstop devaluing of the dollar, the Covid lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, spending taxpayer money on illegals and foreign countries. You'll own nothing and be happy.

 

[Islam Imamate]

No, you're just doing the math wrong (or falling for the WSJ trying to trick you). What percentage of filers are in the top 1% and what percentage are in the bottom 99%? I know you can figure this one out.

Making over $1 million a year would put you among the top .1% of earners in the US and according to their own figures 20% of audits are aimed at those filers. So they're getting 200x more audits than you'd expect purely on their proportion of the population. I would also question whether someone making $200,000 would qualify as middle class. Earning at least that much would put you in the top 5-10% of earners in the US and they're getting 17% of the audits.

I'm not sure what the preferred policy being advocated for here is, should the middle class not be audited at all?

 

[Jack V Savage]

Making over $1 million a year would put you among the top .1% of earners in the US and according to their own figures 20% of audits are aimed at those filers. So they're getting 200x more audits than you'd expect purely on their proportion of the population. I would also question whether someone making $200,000 would qualify as middle class. Earning at least that much would put you in the top 5-10% of earners in the US and they're getting 17% of the audits.

I'm not sure what the preferred policy being advocated for here is, should the middle class not be audited at all?

The thing is, the WSJ (and GOP generally) really don't want rich people to be caught stealing from the public. But they can't get much support for that agenda so they do some shitty math and push the idea that it's really middle-class thieves who are getting caught to work up people like Nostra and Whippy, who are really passionate partisans but not very sharp.

 

[ColemanwastheGOAT]

So, exactly what the right warned about and the left dismissed as a conspiracy theory?

Add it to the list, I guess.

 

[ColemanwastheGOAT]

What do you think is unacceptable?

I don't really understand the pro-theft position here. Can anyone explain why they'd favor letting people cheat on their taxes rather than just lowering rates?

Not paying your taxes isn't theft. Collectong taxes is theft.

 

[Rational Poster]

The thing is, the WSJ (and GOP generally) really don't want rich people to be caught stealing from the public. But they can't get much support for that agenda so they do some shitty math and push the idea that it's really middle-class thieves who are getting caught to work up people like Nostra and Whippy, who are really passionate partisans but not very sharp.

The GOP policy on the IRS is literally underfund them as much as possible then try to abolish the agency because they don't have the resources to do the job.

They've been funded (but still underfunded for the task) for less than a year and now they're having a fit over it.

 

[Jack V Savage]

Not paying your taxes isn't theft. Collectong taxes is theft.

Theft that you support is still theft.

 

[ColemanwastheGOAT]

Theft that you support is still theft.

Agreed.