Comments on: Fix the Tax Code Friday: Targeted Enforcement

By: Rob

Rob — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:42:26 +0000

I love how we’re willing to assume our neighbors are guilty until proven innocent. Oh, wait… it’s supposed to be the other way around.

Oh, and Angela’s comment that not paying an income tax is ‘not contributing to their upkeep’. Let’s see, they pay 15% payroll taxes, sales taxes, and worst of all, they get hit the hardest by the inflation tax. There’s more than one way to clip coins, and just about everyone is paying a heavier price than any other civilization in history.

By: James

James — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:17:59 +0000

I’m with you LJ, let’s start at the top and target cabinet appointees and selections, starting with Tim Geithner. I assure you that Turbo Tax will not be using Mr. Geithner in any of their ad campaigns. To answer the question, no, targeted enforcement may actually be against the law some what like entrapment and it is not fair. When the IRS makes open statements like this, the CPA’s and Tax Attorneys take notice and start closing the loopholes.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:11:46 +0000

Mary Kay, I agree with you re unreported income.

By: Vinny

Vinny — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:15:50 +0000

Of course targeted enforcement makes sense. To paraphrase Willie Sutton, “That’s where the money is.”

By: JBruce

JBruce — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:39:43 +0000

I pretty much agree with everyone else. The purpose of enforcement is to make sure that everyone pays all the taxes that they’re legally obliged to. The IRS doesn’t have limitless resources; they can’t audit everybody. So it makes sense to put those resources where they are likely to yield the most additional tax revenue.
I particularly approve of their current targets, since I’m not in the sights of any of them.

By: jpe

jpe — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:12:57 +0000

As a practical matter, I think it makes a ton of sense. I’ve dealt w/ IRS examiners that didn’t understand some of the basic contours of what they they were working on (that’s not to fault them: tax is an enormous & complex field). Targeted enforcement lets the examiners focus their efforts and do a better, more sophisticated job.

By: LJ

LJ — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:24:59 +0000

One more group they should target is former and current congress members. Just look at what they uncovered with the cabinet selections…

By: Mary Kay Foss

Mary Kay Foss — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:59:19 +0000

I was at a meeting once with IRS reps who mentioned they were doing an audit project where they selected tax returns with an Earned Income Credit when there was a male single parent with twins under age 2. The returns that they selected had a high incidence of EIC fraud.

I think that targeted enforcement works if they select logical targets. Unreported income, to me, is a more important issue than overstated deductions and I don’t think that targeting high wage earners will help that situation.

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:11:00 +0000

Income taxes aren’t fair, so that’s a moot point. The whole Marxist concept of a graduated tax has evolved into creating a large percentage of people who pay no taxes. They contribute absolutely nothing towards their upkeep.

Is targeted enforcement a good idea? I don’t know. I don’t have enough data. If the people that do have the data have determined that they can attain their goals, which are probably maximizing income and increasing prosecutions, by utilizing the process, then of course it’s a good idea.