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I write this during election week 2023, while pondering election year 2024. Recent polls show Donald Trump as a strong candidate. But what have we got to lose if Trump and other MAGA candidates win in 2024? MAGA Speaker of the House Mike Johnson reminded us. While millions are suffering in war zones, Mike Johnson made cutting IRS funding a priority. One of Kevin McCarthy’s first actions as Speaker of the House was also a call to cut IRS funding. In truth, the Republican Party has a history of cutting IRS funding, including calls to eliminate the IRS since the 1990s.
Beginning in 2010, the IRS has had funding cut by 100s of millions of dollars, reducing its enforcement budget by 23 percent and customer assistance by 4 percent. Defunding enforcement affects technological advances, collection efforts, tracking down non-filers, and auditing for fraud and errors. In the 2015-2017 biennial, $9 billion less was collected by enforcement compared to the 2008-2010 biennial.
But what do we, average citizens, lose if MAGA politicians continue to cut funding for the IRS. We lose a tax authority that doesn’t have staff to help average taxpayers with questions and filing issues. We lose the concept that we all pay our fair share. Unchecked, tax evasion breeds repeat tax evasion. Income inequality is at an all-time high, greatly reduced audits of complex tax returns widens America’s wealth disparities. As a nation, together, we all lose billions of dollars that go uncollected.
Nadine Bangerter
Rockland