The United States will lose an estimated $7 trillion over the next decade from people and corporations not paying the taxes they owe. That is twice the $3.5 trillion of investments that Congress is now considering in the budget reconciliation bill.
The richest 1 percent of taxpayers alone are responsible for an estimated $163 billion in unpaid taxes each year. Yet, due to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) budget cuts, the IRS has lost thousands of experienced enforcement personnel capable of thoroughly examining complex tax returns. Audit rates of high-income Americans and the largest corporations have plummeted, draining revenue and resulting in an increased share of examinations focused on recipients of the earned income tax credit (EITC), who are much more inexpensive for the IRS to audit. The status quo benefits wealthy tax cheats to the detriment of ordinary Americans. It also reinforces economic inequality, including the stark income and wealth inequities by race.
