The famous quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, which can be found etched into the building’s outside face, reads “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.”
However, there is nothing even somewhat civilized about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is the tax collection agency for the United States and is notorious for its heavy-handed tactics, ineptitude, and scandals.
Although the building’s columns and details are reminiscent of the style of the French Renaissance, the inspiration behind the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is more closely associated with Robespierre given the level of fear its agents inflict on inhabitants of the United States.
The modest language in our founding document that grants Congress the power to raise taxes in the name of the common defence and the general welfare of the nation does not come close to describing the existing authority of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The agency currently has 80,000 personnel and an enforcement budget that is higher than the budgets of general funds for a dozen states in the United States.
The administration of Vice President Joe Biden intends to increase both the size of the budget and the number of auditing staff members to squeeze more money out of corporations and taxpayers in the United States.
Recently, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.), who is regarded as a moderate, worked out a compromise to pass a bill with the peculiarly called Inflation Reduction Act.
Expecting a spending plan that totals $739 billion to bring down inflation is like expecting a tanker of gasoline to put out a fire; nonetheless, this is the least of our concerns.
The Internal Tax Service would see a six-fold increase in its budget as a result of the policy, and the number of federal revenue officers would also be increased by the same factor.
According to The Wall Street Journal, “The plan earmarks $45.6 billion for ‘enforcement,’ including ‘litigation,’ ‘criminal investigations,’ ‘investigative technologies,’ ‘digital asset tracking,’ and a new fleet of tax-collector cars.”
This enormous influx of cash will make it difficult for the Internal Revenue Service to spend all of it, but in the end, it will mean that there will be 80,000 additional IRS employees breathing down our necks.
However, according to the Journal, Congress itself reports that “78 per cent to 90 per cent of the money raised from under-reported income would likely come from those making less than $200,000 a year.”
This contradicts what the president and his fellow Democrats claim, which is that this is simply about targeting multi-millionaires and billionaires and forcing them to pay their fair share.
The administration estimates that passing this law will bring the deficit down by $102 billion over the next decade.
Even if what is being said is accurate (which you shouldn’t put money on), the size of the federal budget is over $6 trillion.
As a result of reduced expenditure on the epidemic, the government deficit has decreased since 2020, but it is still one trillion dollars.
The national debt is getting dangerously close to $31 trillion. The problem is the excessive spending that is being done by the government. To “shakedown” American citizens for even more money won’t solve the problem.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but the proper term is “shakedown.” The primary goal of this piece of legislation is not to collect additional money; rather, it is to free an agency that is already inefficient and abusive from its shackles.
I spoke with a prominent tax attorney who had worked for the IRS for several years, and she corroborated what other people have experienced.
When the IRS deems that a person is delinquent on their taxes, it will send them threatening letters. However, the individual who is being threatened does not have any actual recourse or due process. Only a very small fraction of calls can be taken by the IRS hotline at any given time.
Getting through to a live person at the IRS frequently requires one to wait for several hours on hold, only to be met with answers that are vague or even contradictory.
The organization lacks a current web platform that would enable taxpayers to manage the majority of these concerns in an effective manner.
In the past, when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued a levy, the notice would also include the name of a revenue officer whom a taxpayer may speak with.
This is a situation that frequently arises. The Internal Revenue Service has decided that you owe a significant amount of money to them.
You and your accountant are unable to speak with a representative. Your bank account may be frozen, a lien may be placed on your property, and earnings may be garnished by the agency.
The only way to remedy the problem is to retain legal representation and shell out thousands of dollars to have your day in court.
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Given that billionaires and major enterprises can afford to have an army of accountants and attorneys on retainer, a cynic would claim that the Internal Revenue Service deliberately goes after people with moderate incomes.
According to an article that was published in National Review by Joe Bishop-Henchman, “The IRS professes to focus on the rich, but then targets the middle class, as such taxpayers are more likely to pay and not fight back.”
Upgrades to the agency’s customer service system and technological infrastructure receive an extremely insignificant amount of the newly allocated funds.
That demonstrates clearly where the objectives of the Biden administration lie. It is possible that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ought to utilize some of its newly acquired resources to replace the Holmes remark with the following one from John Marshall, another illustrious high court justice: “The power to tax is the power to destroy.”