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High-income earners who skipped out on filing tax returns believed to owe hundreds of millions of dollars to IRS (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 9 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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The IRS is going after high-income earners who skipped out on filing federal income tax returns in more than 125,000 instances since 2017, the agency said Thursday.

They're believed to owe, based on a conservative estimate, hundreds of millions of dollars, the IRS said. The number could be much higher – but the IRS said it can't be sure of an exact amount since the agency doesn't know what potential credits and deductions these people may have.

"At this time of year when millions of hard-working people are doing the right thing paying their taxes, we cannot tolerate those with higher incomes failing to do a basic civic duty of filing a tax return," IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a press release. "The IRS is taking this step to address this most basic form of non-compliance, which includes many who are engaged in tax evasion."

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[-] pineapple_pizza@lemmy.dexlit.xyz 33 points 9 months ago

This makes people like me that pay taxes feel like suckers.

[-] lobut@lemmy.ca 8 points 9 months ago

I remember being around my friends that were all contractors paying themselves the "minimum" to avoid tax and then expensing things to their company. Earning only a fraction of what they did and they'd always joke that I should pick up the bill.

[-] Thrashy@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

During the Great Recession I spent a few months at a temp IT job for an environmental services contractor, helping their solo sysadmin keep up with a huge hiring boom as they got hired to work the Deepwater Horizon cleanup. Over the course of my employment, I gradually worked out that my boss wasn't supposed to be a one man shop, but the other guy was the CEO's adult son... and he literally never showed up in the office except to pick up his paycheck, like the scene from Arrested Development.

As it turns out, the paycheck wasn't the only thing Failson Junior was getting from the company. His house? It was a "branch office," so the company paid the mortgage and all the utilities. His car was a company car, for all the business-critical IT emergencies he never responded to, and his phone provided by the company so that he could ignore support calls. With all those company perks, Junior spent all his time fishing and coaching Little League, while his supposed boss slowly went insane as he struggled to support the IT needs of 500 people instead of the usual 50.

As you might guess, Junior's nepobaby lifestyle wasn't the only fucky thing about that company. The corporate accountant complained the the CEO and her husband treated the company's accounts like their private piggy bank, putting everything from iPads to RVs in the company's name. They'd very nearly pushed the company to insolvency before using some very suspect MBE/WBE creds to snag a piece of the Deepwater Horizon cleanup operation. When I joined up, they pitched themselves as a tight-knit, family-owned business. After the wellhead got capped, the cleanup wound down, and I was laid off, I vowed to never again work for another family-owned business.

[-] littlebluespark@lemmy.world 16 points 9 months ago

So, that's how they're planning to pay off Trump's legal debts? Bold move, Republicunts.

[-] Feathercrown@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

GET THEIR ASSES

[+] TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world -49 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

When most of the tax goes to blowing people up across the world, F the taxes.

You know what doesn't make a politician popular? Increasing the aggressiveness of a mob organization that shakes down its citizens anywhere in the world. Americans need to realize that they are the only country other than Eritrea that taxes every penny every citizen and permanent resident make for their entire lives anywhere in the world.

In a civilized country you are taxed locally for what you earn locally and it pays for services. In the US you are taxed globally for what you earn outside its jurisdiction and then they use that money to actively antagonize a large portion of the world on your behalf.

Edit: And yet again it just shows the majority of users on here are idiotic Americans that don't comprehend anything outside their stupid little bubble of American Football, NASCAR, and shooting school children for sport. Stupid idiotic country.

[-] gibmiser@lemmy.world 36 points 9 months ago

What's the matter? Afraid you might have to pay your fair share?

People paying taxes on money they earn overseas is such a non-issue you chode. They get an exemption of over a hundred thousand dollars worth of their income earned overseas.

You're either an idiot or a paid troll. I would be nicer to you except the way you're talking with such conviction needs to stop.

[-] n2burns@lemmy.ca 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Also, what they're saying is completely untrue. In most countries you need to report your foreign income and may have to pay taxes on it. I'm a Canadian and we need to report foreign income. We have tax treaties, so taxpayers (generally) aren't double taxed. However, a lot of cross boarder Canadian workers pay less tax in the US than they would at home, so they are required to pay the difference to the CRA.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 5 points 9 months ago

We have to report it in the US too. It's annoying because one of my wife's mutual funds has foreign stocks and I always have to search for what country it is for the dividend form.

[-] CluelessLemmyng 19 points 9 months ago

Most of the tax goes to Healthcare and Social Security, 45% of the budget. Defense is 13%.

[-] TheChurn@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago

SS and Medicare are largely funded by dedicated taxes (the payroll tax), and the spending is mandatory - it is spelled out in the laws that created these programs.

The discretionary part of the budget is where general taxes on income, inheritance, etc. go, and where everything else the government does is financed. Foreign aid, infrastructure investment, grants, disaster relief.. everything besides SS Medicare/Medicaid.

US Military spending is more than half of discretionary spending.

I'm household terms (which is a bad analogy) after paying the mortgage and utility bills, we spend more than half of what is left of the paycheck on guns and ammo.

[-] Argonne@lemmy.world 15 points 9 months ago

Imagine thinking you don't have to pay taxes because you disagree with how they're spent

[-] Neato@ttrpg.network 13 points 9 months ago

^ poster mad he lives in a society.

this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2024

224 points (99.6% liked)

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