[toomuchtodo]

The baseline was there was significant tax evasion by high net worth individuals. The staff up was to counter that, staffing down puts us back at reduced enforcement.

Someone has to pay to operate a nation state, you can’t borrow forever to fill the gap and there’s nothing left to cut. Roughly the bottom 60% of Americans do not make enough to have a federal income tax liability. So, we can kick the can on the top 40% paying until the bond vigilantes make the decision for the US.

[groundzeros2015]

> The staff up was to counter that

Stated reasons may or may not be actual.

If you recall these were not just accountants but agents who carry guns etc.

I see this as very similar to the ICE situation. Biden has loyalty and power in IRS and so gave it money to help him police. As the government gets more corrupted I think we’ll find more agencies weaponized like this.

[toomuchtodo]

Can you provide proof of this “loyalty and power” at the IRS to Biden mentioned? Because without proof, it sounds like a “deep state” conspiracy theory without evidence.

[groundzeros2015]

I can provide evidence that the IRS and the majority of its employees have good relationships with democrats.

The equivalent question is can you provide proof that ICE provides power and is loyal to Trump?

I don’t think you would say that’s a deep state conspiracy.

[nobodyandproud]

OP talks about policing high net-worth individuals and organizations, causing most of the taxation headaches.

You’re shifting the discussion to organizations being political, hoping it becomes a divisive topic.

A well-worn and sleazy playbook to dodge any discussion of a problem that has exceeded the tipping point.

[guywithahat]

I'm not the guy you replied to but the idea that "high-net worth individuals" (I assume you mean hundred-millionaires+) are skimping out on a meaningful amount of taxes is political. Most of these IRS agents will end up going after normal people, which is where most tax revenue comes from and where most of the fraud is. Billionaires have entire teams who do nothing but make sure their taxes are in order, a small business owner is more liable to make mistakes or try to commit fraud, which is who they will have to go after if they want to increase revenue. I think there's merit to his point, that the IRS has a history of targeting conservative organizations (https://grokipedia.com/page/IRS_targeting_controversy), and this has lead to their funding being a political issue.

I wouldn't call is comment sleazy I think he's just trying to discuss the topic at hand.

[nobodyandproud]

> Most of these IRS agents will end up going after normal people,

Normal people are the easiest to chase; the cut backs have made this a foregone conclusion.

> which is where most tax revenue comes

Because normal people can’t afford transnational accounting shenanigans.

> from and where most of the fraud is.

The Panama papers prove deliberate tax dodges are not by “normal people”.

> I wouldn't call is comment sleazy I think he's just trying to discuss the topic at hand.

Injecting and steering a discussion towards party and identity politics a where there was none is a sure fire way to shutdown a discourse.

Deliberate or not, the method involved is sleazy.

By the way: Given that your definition of normal in your heavily downvoted comment, I’m not surprised you’re defending the comment.

Dig deeper and look back over decades. The 2022 bill and headcount to 100k was a push BACK to normal.