ICYMI: Bipartisan Group of Former IRS Commissioners Call for Passage of Inflation Reduction Act, Debunk Lies About Increased Enforcement Affecting Anyone but Rich Tax Cheats

Three former Internal Revenue Service Commissioners, from Republican and Democratic administrations, released a statement endorsing the Inflation Reduction Act's increased funding for the IRS, affirming that increased funding will help modernize and improve the IRS's enforcement of wealthy tax cheats.

The statement emphasized that increased funding would not increase scrutiny or audit rates of those earning under $400k, and instead equip the agency to target high earners who currently evade paying taxes through sophisticated means.

"This bill is about getting to the heart of the problem" write Fred Goldberg, Charles Rossotti and John Koskinen, "and pursuing high-end taxpayers and corporations who today illegally evade their tax obligations."

Read the full statement below:

As former IRS commissioners, we have watched the agency closely over the years, and understand far too well that the status quo is not tenable: The IRS has a workforce that has shrunk to 1970s levels with technological infrastructure that is decades out-of-date and an audit rate that has dropped by 50 percent. The sustained, multi-year funding contained in the reconciliation package is critical to help the agency rebuild. That will mean vastly improved services for taxpayers, who will be able to interact with a modernized IRS in a digital way, whose questions will be answered and issues resolved promptly and fairly, and who will find it simpler to get access to the benefits and credits to which they are entitled. It will also mean the capacity to enforce the tax laws against sophisticated taxpayers who today evade their tax obligations freely, because they know that the IRS lacks the tools it needs to pursue them. To be sure, the vast majority of workers already pay what they owe, which is why the Administration has been clear that audit rates wouldn't increase for families making under $400,000 annually. In fact, for ordinary Americans who already fulfill their tax obligations, audit scrutiny will decline, because the IRS will be better at selecting returns for examination. This bill is about getting to the heart of the problem and pursuing high-end taxpayers and corporations who today illegally evade their tax obligations.

Signed:

• Fred Goldberg, Commissioner of Internal Revenue 1989- 1992
• Charles Rossotti, Commissioner of Internal Revenue 1997-2002
• John Koskinen, Commissioner of Internal Revenue 2013-2017