The Inflation Reduction Act, introduced by the Democrats, has just been enacted by the U.S. Senate. It's essentially the Democrats' last-ditch effort to get funds for their pet projects, climate change legislation being at the top of the list, before an election cycle that's certain to cost them their majority and authority.
The proposed budget increases include more money for the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, which is popular among the left.
The plan would increase the Internal Revenue Service's budget by more than 600%, reaching $80 billion.
So, what exactly will the IRS do with that cash? About $46 billion is set up in the measure to cover the agency's enforcement requirements. The remaining funds will be used to expand the team and improve the company's infrastructure, technology, and customer support.
However, this has led many to speculate that the decision was motivated by politics.
When it comes down to it, the Inflation Reduction Act is all about battling climate control, or what the political left calls it, and the purported need to lessen humanity's impact on the planet. The law allocates a total of $370 billion for this purpose, plus an additional $64 billion to cover the expenses of health plans under the Affordable Care Act.
However, money for environmental protection initiatives must come from somewhere.
Accordingly, the measure mandates that the IRS increase its efforts to more effectively collect the billions due to them annually, including the so-called tax gap, which is estimated to be around $400 billion.
This tax gap is the "difference between taxes collected and actual taxes payable," as Betterment's head of tax, Eric Bronnenkant, puts it. The IRS rarely receives the full amount that is owing to them because of underreporting income and other means of making tax responsibilities appear substantially smaller.
Increasing tax enforcement is proposed as a means to both reduce this deficit and provide the federal government with some much-needed revenue.
This necessitates, of course, a heightened emphasis on auditing.
Obviously, the IRS has assured you that your audit risk has not increased. The IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig, has stated that "audit rates will not climb relative to recent years for households making under $400,000."
Instead, the government claims that it will target high-income individuals and corporations for more auditing. And everyone who is self-employed, runs a cash business, or has an annual income of less than $25,000.
As an FYI, more people than ever before are in the "low-income" tax bracket because of growing inflation and Biden's stupid economic decisions. Furthermore, the proliferation of self-employed people is largely attributable to the rise of the gig economy and the popularity of platforms like Uber.
Furthermore, previous experiences have shown that the IRS is particularly aggressive with people who are politically on the right.
In reality, while Lois Lerner was still the agency's top executive, the political left pressured the IRS to investigate and prosecute various Tea Party conservative groups, leading to the agency's greatest controversy in its history.
House Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig in early August, prompting the IRS to investigate the tax-exempt status of faith-based organizations like the Family Research Council.
Another issue is that the bill will allow the government to hire an undetermined number of new employees in the coming years. There are currently around 80,000 people, and it was predicted that during the next decade, another 87,000 will be hired. In that case, the government agency in question would become the largest in the country.
That's a bit ironic for a country founded on exploitation of the tax system, no?
It's possible that the agency could save more money if they reduced their spending on firearms and ammo.
That's right, you spotted a typo. There have been reports of the IRS spending upwards of $20 million on firearms and ammunition between 2006 and 2019. They have more than 5 million rounds of ammo in storage at the moment.
Why would the IRS want that?
And yet, they require additional funding to increase the number of enforcement agents monitoring your activities to guarantee you are not avoiding paying your fair share of taxes. I'm not convinced that's true either.
Do you have any thoughts?
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Morning Pundit News.
