The agency credited the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act for its stepped-up ability to pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who owe money.

The agency credited the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act for its stepped-up ability to pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who owe money.

The IRS announced Friday that it has recently collected more than half a billion dollars from millionaire Americans who owed tax debt.

The agency credited the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act for its stepped-up ability to pursue “high-income, high-wealth individuals,” as well as complex partnerships and large corporations, who are not paying overdue tax bills.

The IRA, pushed by President Joe Biden and approved in 2022, earmarked $80 billion over 10 years to step up the IRS’ enforcement capabilities. While $20 billion was ultimately clawed back in 2023 as part of the deal to head off a debt-ceiling crisis, the agency indicated it had already made use of its initial allotment.

Over the past year, the IRS said, enforcement officers had recouped approximately $520 million from the most well-off segments of society.

  • stealthnerd@lemmy.world
    741·
    10 months ago

    Spending 8 billion to find half a billion doesn’t sound like something worth bragging about. Let me know when they 20x that number.

    • MicroWave@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      44·
      10 months ago

      I was curious what that funding is used for and found this:

      While the Inflation Reduction Act does include $78 billion over 10 years for the IRS, that money is mainly to help the agency backfill thousands of existing positions, such as IT people, taxpayer customer support — and, yes, auditors. But they will primarily be assigned to focus on ultrawealthy Americans and corporate tax cheats.

      https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-87000-irs-agents-biden_n_63110a90e4b07d96a24c63d0

      • stealthnerd@lemmy.world
        5·
        10 months ago

        Yes and that’s why I said 8 billion and not 80, I accounted for the fact that this was one year worth of work.

      • NounsAndWords@lemmy.world
        924·
        10 months ago

        But the additional money was effectively $8 billion per year ($80 billion over 10 years). I very much want to force the rich to pay taxes…but I want it to cost less than the taxes they collect to do it.
        Hopefully it keeps ramping up in the coming years.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
          163·
          10 months ago

          Do you think this is their only accomplishment, or just the one they want most obviously publicized?

          • NounsAndWords@lemmy.world
            915·
            10 months ago

            Certainly not the only accomplishment, but I expect between the agency itself and the politicians who pushed for the budget allocations, they would want to advertise the biggest number they can come up with to justify the funding. What I think is that $520 million was the biggest number they could reasonably justify reporting.