Wednesday May 18, 2022 – The United States Government Accountability Office recently released Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Oversight, Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives titled “TAX COMPLIANCE Trends of IRS Audit Rates and Results for Individual Taxpayers by Income.”

The Report found that In recent years, IRS has examined, or audited, a decreasing proportion of individual tax returns. This trend has raised concerns about the potential for
declining taxpayer compliance, as well as whether IRS is equitably selecting taxpayers for audit, as audit rates for
higher-income taxpayers have decreased more than audit rates for lower-income taxpayers.

Attorney Steven A. Leahy reviews this recent report and details how these changes may effect taxpayers on Today’s Tax Talk.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleaebeling/2022/05/18/irs-tax-return-audit-rates-plummet/?sh=2a46301d1cca

https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-audit-rates-plummet-especially-for-wealthy

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104960.pdf

Tuesday May 17, 2022 – Cryptocurrency has grown up – and legislators and regulators have noticed. We have covered many new regulations and proposed regulations over the last many months.

In response, Crypto is sending in the lobbyists and pouring millions of dollars into primary elections to gain influence over members of Congress and other government officials who are crafting regulations.

Attorney Steven A. Leahy looks over the recent Cryptocurrency lobbying efforts on Today’s Tax Talk.

https://tulsaworld.com/lifestyles/technology/crypto-comes-to-washington-will-the-millions-buy-influence/article_b5dac209-1c4e-542f-845c-370e8775df54.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/crypto-industry-wields-its-influence-in-washington-after-pouring-over-2430-million-into-campaigns/ar-AAXmLu2

Monday May 16, 2022 – The TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION recently conducted an audit and issued a report on May 4, 2022 – A Service-Wide Strategy Is Needed to Address Challenges Limiting Growth in Business Tax Return Electronic Filing.

“This audit was initiated because the IRS’s continued inability to process backlogs of paper-filed tax returns contributed to management’s decision to destroy an estimated 30 million paper-filed information return documents in March 2021. The IRS uses these documents to conduct post-processing compliance matches to identify taxpayers who do not accurately report their income.”

The IRS destroyed 30 Million information return documents! These information returns are required documents – taxpayers shoulder the cost and burden of producing these documents in a timely fashion. And the IRS destroyed 30 million.

Don’t worry – says the IRS – “There were no negative taxpayer consequences as a result of this action,” “Taxpayers or payers have not been and will not be subject to penalties resulting from this action.”

So, it is important that information returns are filed – and information returns should be expanded – but, if they are destroyed, there are no consequences.

Attorney Steven A. Leahy reviews this latest TIGFTA report today on Today’s Tax Talk.

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/taxes/articles/irs-destroyed-30-million-paper-tax-documents-due-to-backlog/

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/13/joe-biden-asked-to-replace-irs-chief-charles-rettig-over-tax-document-destruction.html

https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-blasted-for-destroying-millions-of-information-returns-due-to-backlog

Thursday May 5, 2022 – Paper is the IRS’s Kryptonite. So says Erin Collins the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate. IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig told the Senate Appropriation Committee’s subcommittee on financial services and general government that the agency is “going into the direction of being able to automate paper returns.”

The IRS Requested funding in 2013 to convert to a digital scanning system – as many states did some years ago. But the Commissioner said “If we were asking for it in 2013, we are 10 years essentially, technology-wise, beyond that,”

Rettig said scanning and digitization technology would help the agency reduce its backlog and improve efficiency, but probably wouldn’t result in workforce cost savings.

According to Subcommittee Ranking Member Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) the IRS received more than $3 billion in supplemental COVID-19 funding since 2020, and more than $1 billion remains available.

Attorney Steven A. Leahy goes over the IRS digitalization plan on Today’s Tax Talk.

Wednesday May 4, 2022 – Last year the IRS signed an $86 million contract with identity verification provider ID.me to provide biometric identity verification services. As soon as the deal was announced, there was an outcry – and the IRS seemed to backtrack.

Yesterday IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig told a subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee that the taxpayer access to the online IRS depends on .”identity proofing.” Something the current system just isn’t good at.

It appears from all the news, the IRS is backtracking again – going back to ID.me and biometric data of taxpayers.

The public – along with many members of Congress – loudly objected to the invasion of privacy necessary to access their own records. Now, that the roar has quieted, the IRS is back at it, pushing ID.me on the unwary public.

Attorney Steven A. Leahy revisits the IRS ID.me controversy on this episode of Today’s Tax Talk

https://fcw.com/digital-government/2022/05/irs-leader-explains-why-irs-went-idme/366516/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/identity-check-contractor-idme-fires-dozens-fraud-team-congress-probes-2022-04-26/