Michael Welu worked at the IRS for decades as a specialist in helping agents identify and investigate possible tax crimes. In an agency known for offices working in their own silos, Welu had the rare ability to move between divisions, dissecting and learning each office’s particular customs and procedures. But that experience had its own consequence for Welu: Seeing disparities in how the separate divisions treated different tiers of taxpayers left him exasperated and helped drive him into early retirement.
For more than 30 years, Welu watched the agency struggle with budget cuts and dwindling staff. What troubled Welu, he says, went deeper than just resource constraints.
During his time at the IRS, he says, upper management in the division tasked with auditing large corporations and ultrawealthy people — the Large Business and International Division — was quick to dismiss any suggestion that a powerful taxpayer may have committed a […]
Because so little was being done (because of the time and expense to audit very wealthy people), Biden proposed adding a large number of IRS agents to audit the very rich. What happened? The GOP majority in the House would not bring this up and, therefore, no new agents were added. It’s a typical GOP ploy—-let the rich keep getting richer and lower taxes for them, etc.
The only hope is the Biden wins again and the Dems take over the House once again to bring proper auditing of the very rich to take place. So much more in taxes would be gained than the cost of increasing IRS personnel. The very rich are paying the lowest of tax rates of any who actually pay taxes.