IRS audits more poor people than rich people...because it's easier.

[zebby23]

No, youre like an old angry man commenting on Facebook mentioning Trump in every post.

Or some kid in the Heavy's.
"Man, todd duffee's career went downhill fast."
"Yeah, justblike Trump's Presidency "

The cure? Stop letting someone occupy so much of your headspace.

That’s a good one about Duffy. Mind if I use it?

 

[Swing]

I’ve been diagnosed with not wanting an incompetent criminal in office. What’s the cure?

Rick Scott seems competent.

 

[zebby23]

Rick Scott seems competent.

not sure if serious

 

[Crocop42]

That’s a good one about Duffy. Mind if I use it?

I hate you

 

[Swing]

not sure if serious

the joke is that he's a competent criminal.

 

[zebby23]

I hate you

Well that’s not very nice. I don’t hate you. Just wish I could help you

 

[Crocop42]

Well that’s not very nice. I don’t hate you. Just wish I could help you

I was just being sarcastic. I don't hate you

 

[zebby23]

I was just being sarcastic. I don't hate you

me too, I don’t want to help you

 

[Renard]

Catch-22 basically. You can't retain experienced auditors because the salaries are shit and it's hard to get permanent status, so you can't audit rich people to gain more income because the novice examiners don't know what they're doing. That's assuming the audit won't be blown out by teams of well-paid corporate lawyers and accountants, which it definitely will.

Of course that's even assuming the IRS, a public institution with no profit motive and by definition much less oriented towards efficiency than the private sector, would actually spend their increased income judiciously. Probably not.
I like all the social services we have in Canada, but I've talked to a lot of people who work in the public sector - the amount of waste and inefficiency is staggering. Bosses getting paid first-class tickets when they're supposed to fly economic, hiring of completely incompetent IT staff to manage government systems, horrible employees who unfirable because they have seniority, mismanagement of resources because it's "nobody's money" and no one cares.

 

[Crocop42]

I was just being sarcastic. I don't hate you

Don't want or need help.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

In my experience, these are the primary reasons why some of my clients were audited:

1) underreporting income
2) claiming dependents that are not theirs
3) really shady "business expenses" and bogus Schedule C income.

 

[xcvbn]

Calm down comrade. We just need slight tweaks to the system.

 

[Armbars]

https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/irs-audits-poor-taxpayers-easier
https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-sorry-but-its-just-easier-and-cheaper-to-audit-the-poor
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...-ones-admits-that-low-income-cases-are-easier

I thought this was a fascinating piece of information in the context of the income/wealth inequality in this country.

The title sums up the story pretty well. The IRS acknowledged that they audit more poor people than rich people because auditing poor people is easier. It's cheaper for them, takes less time, and requires less professional expertise to conduct.

It's bass-ackwards. The biggest tax cheats have a better chance of avoiding scrutiny than the poor precisely because they are the biggest tax cheats, lol.

Same here in the UK.

Also, the tax man here in the UK ignores travellers(gypsies), Pakistani non british born, amongst others. Simply because they are too difficult to investigate. The middle man is easier, the records of the middle man and his entire life are easily accessible.

 

[waiguoren]

Repeal the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, thereby eliminating the federal income tax and the IRS (with its $11 billion annual budget). Problem solved.

 

[Crocop42]

In my experience, these are the primary reasons why some of my clients were audited:

1) underreporting income
2) claiming dependents that are not theirs
3) really shady "business expenses" and bogus Schedule C income.

My coworkers do this shit all the time. They claim kids that aren't theres, change dependent numbers to false numbers for bonus checks etc. A lot of people think they can beat the system because the government doesn't waste time on poor people.

 

[KONG-D'SNT-TAP]

Oh look disgusting criminal republicans have their hands all over this. Who would’ve guessed.

Keep voting right wing middle class rubes.

 

[SammyPops]

They do. That's why they're doing so many simple audits. They don't cost much, if anything, to conduct.

I once did some tax work for Intuit (looking at returns and stuff for their software development, nothing fancy). The types of audits they're talking about are a simple letter asking for proof that something happened and then updating the tax return to reflect it. It's form letter stuff, very little tax analysis.

I guess I'm having trouble thinking that poor people pay enough taxes that they can really owe that much if caught.

I wonder how much the IRS needs to collect in your scenario?

 

[Jorge Luis Borges]

This is odd, as I was under the impression that most such revenue services wanted to at lest recoup costs in any audit.

Government bureaucracies only rarely care about costs like that. It's not their money they are spending anyway.

The IRS should be razed and we should start over. Wasn't long back when they were auditing organizations for political motives. Now they are grinding the poor and letting the wealthy skate. It is too politicized and too lazy to be entrusted with the amount of power it has been given.

 

[Social Distance Warrior]

My coworkers do this shit all the time. They claim kids that aren't theres, change dependent numbers to false numbers for bonus checks etc. A lot of people think they can beat the system because the government doesn't waste time on poor people.

Yea, I had one co-worker who used an old 1098-T to claim the American Opportunity Credit.

said she went to school full time to maximize this education credit. Surprisingly, the IRS did pay her.

I warned her, "the IRS will find out, maybe not today...maybe not next year, but it's only a matter of time before they match up the EINs that you reported.

 

[panamaican]

I guess I'm having trouble thinking that poor people pay enough taxes that they can really owe that much if caught.

I wonder how much the IRS needs to collect in your scenario?

My limited experience there is that it's usually a couple hundred bucks per. But since the cost is just the form letter plus the time to update the digital information, it's a very low cost audit from the government's side. The discrepancy is handled via a smaller refund, so there's no real collections cost either.

It's pretty simplistic stuff.

And poor working people pay plenty in taxes. At the minimum, they're paying 15% in payroll. Even on a $20k/yr income that's $3k in taxes from which any refund can be reduced.