John,

Conservatives in Congress, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, have made implementing their so-called fiscal commission a top priority.

Last week, they passed fiscal commission legislation out of committee―and they are trying to ram it through in the coming weeks.¹ But if policymakers are really serious about tackling our country’s debt, they’d invest in the IRS.

When the IRS has the resources to go after wealthy tax cheats, there’s an average $22 return on every $1 spent.²

And the investments we made in 2022 in the IRS are already working. These investments have allowed the IRS to:

• Recoup $160 million from millionaires with outstanding debt.^3,4

• Notify Microsoft that it owes an additional $29 billion in back taxes⁵

• Announce the audits of 60 giant corporations that together make more than $500 billion in profits each year.⁶

These achievements are a huge improvement for taxpayers, but Wall Street billionaires are using their considerable power and influence over elected officials to threaten IRS funding so they can continue to go on and exploit loopholes and not pay their fair share in taxes.

Join us in telling Congress to make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share and fully invest in the IRS so they can do their job and catch wealthy tax cheats.

Resourcing the IRS is not just about making the wealthy pay their fair share, it’s also about serving the American people and reducing racial inequality.

Recent investments in the IRS have allowed the agency to answer 3 million more phone calls in 2023 than the year before while cutting the backlog of unprocessed tax returns by 80%.^7,8

Because tax returns of the wealthy are more costly and take more time to audit, the IRS spent years auditing more simple tax forms, which usually belonged to taxpayers claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)―the largest anti-poverty program in the U.S. that pays out $60 billion to low-income taxpayers every year.

So it isn’t surprising that the 5 most audited counties in the U.S. are low-income, predominantly African American communities in the Deep South, with Humphreys County, Mississippi―a county of 7,551 people that’s 75% Black and where the per capita income is $21,861―being the most audited county in the United States.^9,10

The IRS doesn’t collect taxpayers’ racial data. But due to centuries of social and economic oppression and discriminatory policies, African Americans are disproportionately more likely to be kept out of high paying careers and less likely to report business income; all of which makes them much more likely to qualify for the EITC, and less likely to have the complicated returns that the IRS often fails to audit.

Protecting and maintaining IRS funding is essential for achieving a fair tax code, working to eliminate anti-Black racism from the implementation of our tax policy, and ensuring the wealthiest tax cheats finally pay their fair share.

ADD YOUR NAME to demand Congress fully fund the IRS so they can go after wealthy tax cheats and recoup millions of dollars that can reduce our national debt and be invested back into our communities.

Thank you for all you do,

Meredith Dodson
Senior Director of Public Policy, Coalition on Human Needs

¹ Bill to create new debt commission approved in House panel
² CONSERVATIVE EFFORTS TO PAD WEALTHY TAX CHEATS’ POCKETS
³ IRS ramping up crackdown on wealthy taxpayers, targeting 1,600 millionaires
⁴ IRS has collected $160 million in back taxes by cracking down on millionaires
⁵ IRS says Microsoft owes an additional $29 billion in back taxes
⁶ IRS Investment Update: Business Account Launches, Noncompliant US Subsidiaries Targeted
⁷Filing Season 2023 Report Card: IRS Delivered Significantly Improved Customer Service
⁸ New Analysis Shows Trump-Era IRS Audited Low-Income Workers at a Higher Rate Than Millionaires
⁹ ‘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
¹⁰ QuickFacts Humphreys County, Mississippi