Name: Millionaires dodged $2.4 billion in income tax, watchdog claims
Brand: cnbc.com
SKU: cnbc-com-329
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Millionaires dodged $2.4 billion in income tax, watchdog claims

preview

Key PointsThe IRS should police wealthy Americans who intentionally dodge their income taxes with more vigor, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.About 686,000 taxpayers who earn at least $200,000 a year had a combined $38.5 billion tax balance as of mid-May 2019, according to the watchdog.Further, the agency collects less than 50% of tax debt owed by high-income taxpayers within a year of the case being assigned to an IRS tax collector, the report said.More from Personal Finance:For example, high earners — those making at least $1.5 million a year — paid the IRS just 39% of the taxes they owed, on average, according to the. Such taxpayers still owed about $2.4 billion in delinquent tax."High-income taxpayer noncompliance can have a significant corrosive effect on overall tax administration as well as add to the belief that the nation's tax system favors the wealthy," according to the Inspector General report.It's important to determine how effectively the IRS is addressing delinquent taxes among the rich due to its limited staffing of experienced tax collectors, the report said.Cramer on reports that Biden is planning first major federal tax hike since 1993Eric Hylton, commissioner of the IRS Small Business/Self-Employed Division, said the audit's findings are inaccurate and an incomplete representation of the facts.For example, the conclusion that the rich paid 39% of owed tax, on average, only reflects what was paid within the first year of cases being assigned to a collection officer, he said."Some of these cases were still being actively worked at the end of the analysis period, and the analysis does not follow cases in their entirety," Hylton wrote. "Therefore, it cannot be used to determine what the IRS ultimately collects."The IRS doesn't make taxpayer income a high priority when determining which cases to work, the Inspector General report said. The agency places greater significance on other factors, such as dollar amount of the tax balance.But tax dollars owed isn't always an accurate identifier of the wealthy, according to the report. For example, the largest number of high-income taxpayers (69%) owe less than $25,000, the watchdog found."It is reasonable to believe that taxpayers earning millions of dollars can pay tax debts that total a very small fraction of that amount," the report said.Wealthy Americans remain a "high priority" for the agency's tax collectors, Hylton said.The IRS does, and will continue to, evaluate its predictive models to judge whether refinements could better target delinquent high-income taxpayers, he said.

Key PointsThe IRS should police wealthy Americans who intentionally dodge their income taxes with more vigor, according to a report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.About 686,000 taxpayers who earn at least $200,000 a year had a combined $38.5 billion tax balance as of mid-May 2019, according to the watchdog.Further, the agency collects less than 50% of tax debt owed by high-income taxpayers within a year of the case being assigned to an IRS tax collector, the report said.More from Personal Finance:For example, high earners — those making at least $1.5 million a...

public

Personal finance reporter @CNBC. Improv comedy @magnettheater. I write about travel for fun (http://anodetotheroad.com). Tips: gregory.iacurci@nbcuni.com

Greg Iacurci

cnbc.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Millionaires dodged $2.4 billion in income tax, watchdog claims

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS