IRS Controversies Raise Concerns About Auditing Army’s Bias

President Joe Biden has called for 87,000 IRS agents funding to audit Americans. It raises questions as to whether the new audits will be politically motivated, or target poorer Americans.

Biden claims that the Inflation Reduction Act contained $80 billion to strengthen IRS efforts. This will, Biden said, more than pay for itself in audits.

Biden’s nominee for the Internal Revenue Service leadership, Daniel Werfel, raised concerns about this policy during his confirmation hearing, but promised lawmakers that the audits would be targeted at wealthier Americans.

“…the audit and compliance priorities will be focused on enhancing the IRS’ capabilities to ensure America’s highest earners comply with applicable tax laws,” Werfel said.

Critics argue that there aren’t enough wealthy Americans to audit for the tens to billions of dollars required to hire auditors. The IRS’s recent behavior suggests that the IRS will target conservative Americans and the poor.

“The Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official tax scorekeeper, said that 78% to 90% of the money raised from under-reported income would likely come from those making less than $200,000 a year, with nearly half of the audits hitting Americans making $75,000 per year or less,” House Ways and Means Republicans made the following statement.

Informing America Foundation has released a new report that details the IRS’ recent mistakes.

“The IRS is targeting low-income Americans and conservative nonprofits,” According to the report. “President Biden massively expanded the IRS, which improperly scrutinized conservative nonprofits, Americans in the black belt, and more.”

After news broke about the targeting of Tea Party groups by the Obama administration’s IRS, the IRS settled for $3.5 million with them.

After denying a Christian group nonprofit status, the IRS had no choice but to reverse its ruling in 2021. The agent who made this ruling claimed that the group didn’t qualify. “Bible teachings are typically affiliated with the [Republican] party and candidates.”

Christians Engaged was the group that won the case, but critics claim this case shows the mentality at least some IRS employees.

“The recent determination on Christians Engaged’s tax-exempt status further exposed the corruption and liberal bias running rampant at the IRS,” Chip Roy (Republican from Texas) stated the following: “This discriminatory action against a Christian nonprofit is an overt attack on religious liberty by a tyrannical federal government. Moreover, this decision comes at a time when members of both parties are trying to increase the ability of the IRS to harass individual Americans, businesses, and organizations.”

Just this year, IRS announced a program that would crack down on Tip reporting From waiters and waitresses.

“Strange. I was reliably told that the expanded IRS would only target the rich…,” Hunter Estes, communications director for Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves posted on Twitter.

The IRS is also steeped with other information. Issues. The Center Square previously reported that the agency has major problems. BacklogsQuestions over millions of documents destroyed, and many other topics.

The House Ways and Means Committee addressed a letter to the Biden Administration earlier in the month asking about the leak of thousands of IRS documents to ProPublica. ProPublica stated that the leak was motivated by political reasons. “the very richest pay lower rates than the merely rich.”

Janet Yellen, Treasury secretary, stated to the Senate Finance Committee on June 2021 that she would investigate the leak. Congress has so far received very few answers.

America First Legal is a conservative group that was founded by former Trump administration officials. They have also expressed concern about recent equity promises made by the Treasury Department. These policy could be used to decide who audits based on race, they claim.

“The notion that race should play any role whatsoever in the IRS’s operations is absurd, offensive to the American ideal, and illegal,” Gene Hamilton, America First’s Legal Vice-President and General counsel. “But the Biden Administration is so blinded by its relentless obsession with race that it is willing to make IRS enforcement decisions based on the race of American citizens. We will fight their attempts to erode equality under the law and expose their attempts to inject toxic ‘equity’-based policies throughout the federal government.”