The IRS acknowledged the directive and published it’s intent to follow it. There are lots of things in our government that are not codified by law that happen because it’s inherent in the past procedures and if they transgress those and/or the intent of the law, they are subject to action by congress through legislation or funding, and… the director of the IRS serves at the pleasure of the POTUS.
Few directors of large entities have much tolerance for insubordination, I would guess doing so , without good reason, would result in punitive action.
That’s a sweeping generalization at best which I find not surprising at all. And inherited wealth on a scale that’s passed on by the super-rich likely has a much longer shelf-life than 3 generations. On the other hand, wealth – if any accumulated – by a lot of working-class families sometimes runs out before the next paycheck.
BTW, the remainder of your overblown response seemed way too much to even consider. I think you’ve probably tooted your horn at a great enough length already to bore even the most boredom resistant.
So, you expect me to read your opinions, but find mine overblown and boring? So, where does that wealth of those whom you dislike come from? I guess that they didn’t work for it? No one has to live paycheck to paycheck, but the vast majority of them choose to. And, who gave Warren Buffet his wealth? I forget. Well, enjoy your life of envy and complaining. The rest of us will work to build our own wealth. Take care, and yo still cannot answer a single question I posed. That’s a bit sad.
One thing I had noticed about old people or at least a good percentage and I dare say the majority is that they look at wealth in the U.S. and the percentage of people that have wealth and they have a natural negative reaction to it.
It’s understandable although the attitude is still wrong. With the innovation and ingenuity that has occurred over the last 40-50 years there is more opportunity for more people in lower age brackets to obtain wealth and a much better standard of living for a larger percentage of the population than they had.
I saw this with my grandparents who have been gone some 30 years now. They just couldn’t understand or in the case of my grandfather accept that there were so many people in his grand kid’s generation that had a better standard of living than he did at their age.
You are making a flawed assumption, it is not based on fact or history, but rather on a biased hypothesis. It doesn’t make sense for the IRS to audit low-income filers, the ROI shows it’s a loser.
Like it or not, our our country needs money to carry out the essentials of governing. Unlike a kleptocracy or a monarchy we are a democratic republic and must depend on fair and equal taxation of citizens willing to pay taxes to support its successful operation of essential services.
Your observation is accurate in the sense that only ten percent of Americans over 65 have a net worth of $1M or more. And the median net worth of over-65 folks is just $250K.
However you may have skewed your perception of reality of just old people feeling that way because the median net worth of people between 35 and 65 is even less.
Anecdotal information is often misleading, I’d advise against making any important decisions based on it.
We, or at least I understood, are talking about incomes below 400k being targeted for enforcement. Sure the ROI on audits will be larger on an individual basis for those over 400k but in total audits incomes below 400k will yield greater total results. The pool of audits for those incomes below 400k is exponentially larger than those incomes above 400k hence enforcement action must be focused there.
I am all for equal taxation of citizens, which is why I support a flat tax system. It would take some tweaking like eliminating many deductions and establishing an exempt threshold, but it would work.
We don’t have a revenue problem as this chart clearly shows:
Don’t look now…but revenue is up $1.6T (or 50%) since the passage of the much maligned TCJA back in 2017. This is a greater increase than any 5-year period this century…and it included a ridiculous economic shutdown.
Anyone that cares to take off their political glasses can see the problem is reckless spending.
The reason you want to audit the top 1% is because that’s where the money is, it has the best ROI, and there’s 1.6 million of them.
While it’s true that there are a lot more taxpayers below the $400K-income level, the ROI on the top 1% is much higher. And the audit ROI on those making less than $400K is less than $2. Filers making more than $500K pay 40% of all personal income taxes. The top 1% pay 25.99 of the total personal FIT.
Come back to me when the annual Federal budget stays the same or goes down year-over-year, then we can talk about the revenue side. Until then…spending is the problem…
I am completely with you on the overall debt…its a huge problem.
Maybe I can revive some old contacts for working that assignment. When I was an IBM rep in Utah I had dealings with the descendants of the Dalton gang. They might be able to give me some useful advice.
That 1% is already being audited regularly. You are correct it doesn’t make sense, but this is the Federal government. Little they have done recently makes sense, so there is a hidden agenda most likely. How do you make sense of the “Armed” aspect of the agents? Are the 1% really going to physically fight back? Who is likely to fight back? One example I’ve seen recently was an IRS Raid on a gun shop for some very ambiguous reasons, and they took all of the shops records mainly those of their purchasers since forever. Those won’t help the IRS get anymore taxes. What is does do is start creating a list of gun owners for the government, whichthey really have no right to, but small businesses and individuals have a hard time fighting them. The IRS can, and has fiscally broken many people to get what they want. And, yes that came in unannounced with guns! They weren’t the 1% by a long shot. Most people have had no contact with the IRS, but those that have can tell yo some horrifying stories. They make their own rules, have their own courts and judges. You saw what they did with Lois Lerner. Total Constitution violations and nothing happened except to their victims. They are coming for the middle income tax payers and the small businesses. I’ve heard testimony from people that say, the IRS will freely admit that you may be right, but it will be cheaper to pay the fines they levy than taking them to court. They will lose and you pay the bill. Most civilized countries call that Extortion! We just call it 87k new agents with guns! The number don’t add up.
