Article by Michael Reagan with Michael R. Shannon in NewsMax
IRS Burden of Proof: Guilty Until Proven Innocent
We’re wondering how all you turnips in flyover country are feeling today, because the Brandon (or Biden) administration is going to be putting the squeeze on you in the very near future.
The Washington Times has done an analysis of the new Manchin-Schumer Tax bill and the news is bad for Red State taxpayers.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., a supposed champion of the little guy, has just given his blessing to hiring 87,000 new IRS agents who will join the leftovers still with the agency who persecuted TEA Party groups during the Obama years.
"One Republican analysis figures nearly half of the IRS’s new audit work would be aimed at taxpayers with incomes of $75,000 or less and a Trump bumper sticker on their pickup."
Well, maybe not the bumper sticker, but you get the drift.
We agree the IRS does need more employees. The department where reinforcements are needed is customer service, not customer pursuit.
And don’t get us started on the customer hold line.
You have a higher chance of getting a domestic human when you call your cable company, than you do when phoning the IRS.
As Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union, asserts "no retail business would be allowed to keep that sort of customer service while stepping up enforcement. People can’t even check out at the cash register, but their first thought is to increase the number of security guards around the store and search the wallet of everybody coming into the store."
The left is assuring the country these new agents will be focusing their tender mercies on fat cats making more than $400,000.00 dollars a year and if anyone making less than $400,000 annually is targeted, well that’s Putin’s fault.
As is the case so often when dealing with the Biden administration, the facts don’t support his promises. According to the figures from 2019, just over two million tax returns were filed at an income level of $500,000.00 and above.
As Sepp put it, "I mean, are they going to have a 100% audit rate on the individual side? It seems almost physically impossible to spend that much money doing audits."
The answer is, of course not.
But don’t tell that to Steve Pollyanna, er . . . Ellis, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. According to him this large infusion of cash makes it more likely the agency can go after high-dollar cheats than if the investment had been smaller:
"That’s because it takes significant money and manpower to conduct the complex audits required for higher income cheats and giving the agency enough resources makes that an easier lift."
Don’t make us laugh.
This is a federal government where 25% of the employees in one major federal agency didn’t even bother to log on to their agency’s website during the time they were teleloafing during the Fauci epidemic. (Complete details on this outrage here.)
If IRS auditors are given a choice between dedicating the rest of their lives to taking on Jeff Bezos and his platoons of lawyers and accountants or Joe Sixpack with the free pack of tax-filing software, you know Joe’s life just became a lot more complicated.
And we aren’t the only ones with that conclusion.
The Heritage Foundation analyzed the new bill and found the new gig economy with its manifold growth of sole proprietors is going to be a rich new IRS target.
And as usual the dominoes will fall on the heads of those least able to withstand the avalanche:
"Sole proprietors face the greatest risk of audit adjustments, in part because cost constraints force many small business owners to handle their own books, and they struggle to navigate the convoluted U.S. tax code."
"A major expansion of IRS audits would be a concern for all businesses — very much including those who already pay their taxes conscientiously.
"The constant fear of an army of bureaucrats nitpicking their small business operations would push companies to dedicate more money and resources to tax accounting, audits, and legal fees, adding even further to overhead costs.
"This will only further drive down employees’ real wages and push up consumer prices."
This year as you fill out your tax forms, we urge you to remember in the America of the IRS you are always considered guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.
https://www.newsmax.com/reagan/ellis-manchin-schumer/2022/08/05/id/1081929/
