The IRS to hire 87,000 new agents. Who will they go after?

TakeFive said:

According to TIME:


Yellen directs IRS not to use new funding to increase chances of audits of Americans making less than $400,000

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First: Didn't WaPo and Time hear the Yellen/O'Donnell interview from earlier this year? (the applicable segment is about 10 minutes into the above video). In it, both Yellen and the IRS want all banks to report any bank account that have more than $600 annually going through it. Tracking a $600 annual movement through a single bank account isn't really aimed at the corporations or billionaires, yes? It's aimed at middle and lower classes.

Second: Again in that same segment, didn't WaPo and Time hear Janet Yellen say that there's going to be an estimated $7 trillion short fall in tax collection over the next ten years? There's the reason for 87,000 new IRS agents. The majority of which will be used for enforcement. In all, that comes out to a little more than 1,700 new IRS agents per state. They'll have to be doing something in order to keep their new jobs - like chasing down the people making a little extra in the gig economy.

Third: WaPo said that the middle and lower income brackets are already covered by automation. If true, then why hire 87,000 new IRS agents, or about 1,700 agents per state? They'll have to be chasing the low hanging fruit first in order to keep their new jobs. And yes, we're the low hanging fruit. Keep in mind that the IRS is also planning to use about $5 billion to better their automation. That kind of blows WaPo's theory out of the water, yes?

Fourth (and very important): It's ALREADY LEGAL for the corporations and billionaires to pay a less percentage of their income than the middle class and lower class. Thank you Congress. The rich have teams of tax attorneys and accountants on their side. The rest of us are the low hanging fruit in point three.

Fifth: CNN saying that Yellen directing the IRS not to increase the chance of an audit means don't change the current ratio of who gets audited (between all classes). Keep the current balance as best as possible. It doesn't mean don't audit the middle and lower classes and then don't go after their money.

Look, the government needs more money like Janet Yellen said. And just like they did 90 years ago when FDR implemented the bank holiday, they're going to be coming to collect.

Be careful out there. Things are about to get interesting. Protect yourselves.

TakeFive said:

Just spitballing.

Gig workers like us, if they get a 1099 for more than (say) $50,000 then the IRS may ask them to fill out the required form via a computer program.

But if you're a free lancer making a $150k as a writer with little overhead then yeah, you better file taxes. If you're an influencer on YouTube etc making over six figures with little cost, then yeah, you better file taxes. If you're making a lot of money from doing soft porn, then yeah, you better declare and file.

But they're really after the bigger fish. While they may be 'ordinary' citizens if they're scamming Medicare for $millions you better believe the IRS want to know.

There's a lot of money laundering for various fraud that uses Crypto exchanges etc. IRS want to find these guys.

Just curious when did JY say she was looking for 7 trillion dollars? That sounds made up to me.

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No need to name call.

You've already been told in this discussion where to look for JY and her stated need for $7 trillion dollars. If you don't want to look at that data, then that's your prerogative. What's not acceptable in a discussion is you refusing to look at the supplied data (dismissing) and then coming back here and name calling. That's no longer a discussion. That's something else.

"Gig workers like us" - there's more to the gig economy than U/L driving as you know. But, your definition of 'gig worker' may need to be re-examined. It's a bigger field than you may currently realize. Not every 'gig worker' in the gig economy gets a 1099. Fact. A lot of gig work (or side hustle) is done in cash, barter, etc. And regardless of which economic class you're in, the IRS will come after you if you didn't declare all of your income (again, as you already know).

How can the IRS catch that? A story from the 70s: Company A does work for company B. The IRS audits company B and wants to verify that company B paid company A for work done (note: this is where the extra IRS agents will come in play today - going site to site and actually looking - as they used to back in the 30s through early 80s).

So the IRS goes to company A to look for that specific transaction and finds nothing. No mention of services rendered. Turns out an executive at company A cashed the check, but pocketed the money instead. Company A now gets audited too. (I know the people who were involved in this from company A). My point here is these audits had a way of snow balling back in the day. And it will happen again since we now have 87,000 new IRS agents actually tasked with finding hidden money. History repeats. Also, this snowball effect worked between individuals back then too. One declared, the other didn't.

Other than that, I agree with you that they will be coming after crypto, real estate flippers, sellers, etc, etc. Our disagreement seems to be with the classes. The Treasury needs the money. And they are going to look at everyone - if only to get an idea of what's out there (hidden). Lower classes first. They can't defend themselves.