Americans didn’t pay an estimated $688 billion in taxes due on their 2021 returns—the largest shortfall ever. Audits and other enforcement will be stepped up to reduce the gap, the Internal Revenue Service said Thursday
The number includes $542 billion due to underreported income, with the remainder of the shortfall owed by those who didn’t file returns when they should have or never paid their bills.
The total gap is up more than $138 billion from estimates for tax years 2017 to 2019. Much of the increase is due to economic growth. The IRS said there has also been a shift from wage income, for which taxes are withheld, to gig economy jobs, for which there is a lower degree of compliance.
Taxpayers’ overall compliance rate is projected to stay relatively steady at 86.3% for tax year 2021, after audits and other enforcement actions.
The largest element of noncompliance, $182 billion, was attributable to undeclared business and farm income reported on Schedule C and F on individual returns.
By Ashlea Ebeling The Wall Street Journal 10-22-23
Nope it’s not the billionaires, the super wealthy that’s the problem. Sure, the super wealthy use accountants and tax lawyer to squeeze every penny from the tax code, but they are not the ones doing most of the above.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Since the IRS claims to be woefully underfunded, these figures are projections from limited sampling and may be wide of the mark but it makes a good report. I don’t see mention of any estimates of what income levels the alleged short changers belong to but it is made to appear to be the middle income segment.
The compliance of the whales isn’t mentioned because their returns are lengthy, complicated, some areas probably would need Rulings to clarify the deductions and so on. The IRS can’t say what amount might be due from them so I don’t give the whales a pass based on the above.
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A simple flat tax might be helpful–just a few brackets and limit deductions–the ones I have seen give us all a $50,000 exemption and then a few brackets for all of us and a real limit on deductions.
What hoot!! The party that tells us we need to pay our fair share has the leader of the party’s son who didn’t file for many years. You can’t make this sh.. up!!!
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