The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claims that they will not target lower and middle-class Americans under their staff expansion. This is a lie a they already target the poorest households at five times the rate of other income brackets.
Trac IRS examined the audit figures from FY 2021. The IRS audited 659,003 returns last year out of the 160 million filed. So out of every 1,000 filers, four were targeted for audits. This is already an increase from 2020, when three out of every 1,000 filers were investigated. Prior to 2020, audit rates had been declining.
The IRS uses “correspondence audits” to request additional documentation to prove that the filings are accurate. These correspondence audits compiled 85% of all audits conducted last year, marking a 5% increase from the previous two years. Some Americans live on such a small income that they file for an anti-poverty tax credit. Those earning a mere $25,000 annually or less accounted for 54% of all correspondence audits.
The idea that this expanded branch of government will target the dreaded rich is a lie. Around nine million taxpayers in the highest bracket earned between $200,000 to $1,000,000 but were only targeted at one-third of the rate compared to the poorest in the country. In fact, less than 40,000 returns among the top-tier tax bracket were targeted. Only 13,725 people earning over $1 million were targeted. The IRS is basically asking the most desperate among us to prove that they are poor.
With new resources and funding, the IRS will target EVERYONE.
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