Thursday, September 14, 2023 – It’s clear as day: Biden’s promise to refrain from auditing households and small businesses making less than $400,000 a year was never believable from the get-go. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) just dropped a bombshell report saying as much. They reveal that the IRS is hopelessly out-of-date, using income thresholds from 1976! That’s right—while your cost-of-living skyrockets, the IRS is stuck in a time warp, holding onto an archaic definition of “high income” set at $200,000. This bureaucratic inflexibility isn’t just a quirky footnote; it’s leading to more audits for the little guy.

What’s even more shocking is that when TIGTA recommended that the IRS update this decades-old standard to align with Biden’s supposed $400,000 pledge, the IRS flat-out refused. They claim they need “agility” to go after anyone they please. This isn’t agility; it’s a power grab. The IRS wants an unchecked ability to audit whomever they wish, flying in the face of the President’s alleged intentions.

TIGTA didn’t mince words either. They slammed the IRS for having “no common understanding” of what high-income even means. And let’s not forget the report’s title: “The IRS Needs to Leverage the Most Effective Training for Revenue Agents Examining High-Income Taxpayers.” Translation? The IRS is not just outdated but woefully unprepared to enact even their own directives.

So here it is, plain and simple: the IRS isn’t about to rein itself in, and the Biden administration’s pledges are looking emptier by the day. It’s another glaring example of why expansive government power should be viewed with the utmost skepticism.

https://www.tigta.gov/reports/audit/irs-needs-leverage-most-effective-training-revenue-agents-examining-high-income

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Monday March 13, 2023 – The Administration has been clear (??) the Inflation Reduction Act funding to the IRS, almost $80 billion, will not be used to Audit those making less than $400,000 per year. Or will it.

Last week the new Commissioner of the IRS said, I think unequivocally, that the Inflation Reduction Act money will not be used to audit those taxpayers. But, on Friday March 10th, Treasury Secretary Yellen appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee and admitted that more than 90% of any new audits supported by that money will be used to audit small businesses and individuals making less than $400,000 per year.

If you listened closely over these past months, you knew this was the case. There was always some “wiggle room,” as Senator Crapo put it. And trying to get a straight answer was always met with obfuscation.

Now, I think the truth is out. Will it make a difference?

Attorney Steven A. Leahy goes over this new information on Today’s Tax Talk.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/10/politics/yellen-new-irs-funding-audits/index.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/yellen-appears-admit-90-irs-201955117.html

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