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John,
Last week Joe Manchin killed President Biden’s slimmed down $1 trillion tax and investment plan―which would have been paid for mostly by making the wealthy and corporations pay a fairer share of taxes. After saying for the last year that he wanted to roll back the Trump-GOP tax cuts on the rich and corporations, he suddenly got cold feet.
But we think there’s a way we can at least make millionaires and billionaires pay what they currently owe in taxes that Manchin will support and was contained in the president’s plan. It would be to increase funding for the IRS by $80 billion over the next 10 years so it has the people-power to significantly increase audits on the wealthy and big corporations.
Did you know that each year the richest 1% evades $163 billion in taxes?[1]
This is because, after decades of disinvestment by congressional Republicans, the IRS has fewer employees today than any time since the 1970s.[2] In fact, between 2010 and 2018, the IRS lost nearly one-third of its enforcement employees, or 14,000 workers.[3]
Tell the U.S. Senate to fully fund the IRS so it can crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats! Click here to write to your senators today.
That $163 billion in lost revenue each year means we have less money to invest in making healthcare more affordable for working people, and less to invest in proven programs like the Child Tax Credit that lifted millions of children out of poverty last year.
If we were to invest just $80 billion over 10 years in the IRS to crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats, that investment could result in $200 billion to $400 billion in new revenue that could go toward making healthcare more affordable and creating a clean energy economy to combat the climate crisis.[4]
Click here to write to your senators and demand they increase IRS funding by $80 billion so it can crack down on wealthy and corporate tax cheats!
Even if Sen. Manchin will not provide the last vote needed in the Senate to directly increase taxes on the wealthy and corporations, we are hopeful we can get him to agree to beef up IRS funding to make the richest 1% and big corporations pay what they already owe!
Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund
[1] “The Case for a Robust Attack on the Tax Gap,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, September 7, 2021
[2] “Filing Season Preview,” Internal Revenue Service, January 21, 2022 (unpublished data)
[3] “Unrigging the Economy Will Require Enforcing the Tax Laws,” Center for American Progress, March 12, 2020
[4] “Revenue From BBB’s IRS Enforcement Funding Would Support Investments,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Nov. 17, 2021; and “The Substantial Revenue-Raising Potential of Tax Compliance Efforts,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, October 29, 2021
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