John,

For the last decade, Republicans have worked to slash funding for the IRS to protect their wealthy friends and corporate donors from having to pay their fair share in taxes. As a result, the IRS hasn’t had the resources it needs to audit wealthy tax cheats whose taxes are much more complicated than those of working people.

Between 2010 and 2019, audit rates of large corporations declined 54%, and audit rates for millionaires dropped by 71%.[1] In 2011, millionaires were six times more likely to be audited than low-income families. Now they’re only twice as likely to be audited.[2]

Black taxpayers are now up to five times more likely to be audited by the IRS than white taxpayers.[3] And the five most audited counties in the U.S. are primarily African American, low-income, and in the Deep South.[4] That’s because an underfunded IRS prioritizes auditing tax returns that are easiest to audit—like those for recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), of which Black taxpayers are disproportionately represented.

That’s why the funding for tax enforcement in the Inflation Reduction Act is so important. Much of the $80 billion in new funding is to enable the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, as well as to improve customer service for working taxpayers. Not surprisingly, in their first major legislative vote this year House Republicans voted in favor of slashing most of this critical funding.[5]

Properly funding the IRS will help change the disproportionate nature of audits, and finally allow tax enforcement to be focused on wealthy and corporate tax cheats.

Click here to send a message to your members of Congress demanding they protect the newly passed funding for tax enforcement so the IRS can focus their audits on wealthy and corporate tax cheats instead of low-income taxpayers.

Since the IRS began receiving the new funding, they have hired 5,000 new employees and begun answering around 90% of consumer phone calls. That’s up from answering just 13% of calls a year ago.[6] Secretary Yellen has made it clear that the priority for the funding that will arrive over the next ten years is to focus on catching wealthy tax cheats.

And even better, funding to crack down on wealthy tax cheats will more than pay for itself. The highest-income 1% illegally evades $160 billion of taxes every single year.[7] The IRS’ new focus on tax enforcement for these types of tax cheats is set to raise about $100 billion over the next decade.[8]

That’s $100 billion that can be used to invest in low-income communities and communities of color.

Click here to add your name and tell Congress to protect tax enforcement funding for the IRS to go after wealthy and corporate tax cheats and improve customer service for working taxpayers.

Together, we’re fighting for an economy and a tax system that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few.

Frank Clemente
Executive Director
Americans for Tax Fairness Action Fund

[1] “’Congress Needs to Take Two Steps to Fund the IRS for the Short and Long Term,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Feb. 1, 2022
[2] “Trends in the Internal Revenue Service’s Funding and Enforcement,” Congressional Budget Office, July 8, 2020
[3] “Measuring and Mitigating Racial Disparities in Tax Audits,” Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Jan. 30, 2023
[4] “Where in The U.S. Are You Most Likely to Be Audited by the IRS?,” ProPublica, April 1, 2019
[5] In First Legislative Vote, Top Priority for New GOP House is Protecting Rich Tax Cheats, Americans for Tax Fairness, Jan. 9, 2023
[6] “This just in: IRS answering nearly 90 percent of taxpayer phone calls,” Washington Post, Feb. 10, 2023
[7] “The Case for a Robust Attack on the Tax Gap,” U.S. Department of the Treasury, Sep. 7, 2021
[8] Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate, Sep. 7, 2022