John,

Thanks to investments made by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the IRS recently announced that it plans to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large businesses that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in back taxes.¹

This is on top of the $38 million in back taxes it recovered from 175 high-income earners earlier this year.²

We need a strong IRS that has the resources to go after wealthy tax cheats. In 2020, working families who received the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) were audited at rates higher than families who reported income of over $1 million. This is the direct result of decades of drastic budget cuts to IRS funding that left agents without the time or resources necessary to carry out complicated audits of the ultra-wealthy. Audits of millionaires dropped 92% over the last decade.³

And, while former Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a deal with the White House last spring to limit cuts to the IRS as part of the legislation allowing the country to pay its bills, proposed House spending bills would cut at least $67 billion from last year’s $80 billion IRS investment.

Collecting taxes owed by the rich and corporations can pay for urgent priorities, from climate change to fighting poverty and hunger, but extremists in Congress want to slash the IRS budget as a gift to their wealthy tax dodging donors.

Instead of cutting IRS funding, ADD YOUR NAME now to demand Congress increase funding to the IRS to help better serve everyday taxpayers and crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats. Making the wealthy pay their fair share not only reduces income inequality, but it funds critical human needs programs that are essential for a healthy society.

As of 2020, when audits of low-income households surpassed those of millionaires, the five most audited counties in the U.S. were primarily African-American, low-income, and in the Deep South. In a cruel twist of fate, the main reason these communities are audited at such high rates is because they’re low-income and don’t have high-powered tax accountants—and this is exactly what corporate-owned politicians want.⁴

It’s not just that the IRS won’t be able to do audits to collect from well-heeled tax cheats. Cutting funding to the IRS will affect every single person who pays taxes in the United States. From longer times to process tax refunds, to increased wait times to receive phone assistance, reducing IRS funding will undermine the important improvements the IRS has been making—and help the wealthy get away with more tax dodging.

Join us in calling on Congress to increase—not cut—IRS funding.

Thank you for all you do,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ The IRS plans to crack down on 1,600 millionaires to collect millions of dollars in back taxes
² “IRS says it collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income tax delinquents”
³ NEW ANALYSIS SHOWS TRUMP-ERA IRS AUDITED LOW-INCOME WORKERS AT A HIGHER RATE THAN MILLIONAIRES
⁴ ‘They’re easiest to step on’: The real reason why families in the Delta, one of the nation’s poorest regions, are also the most audited by the IRS