Loading ...There’s much more in this article of who they’ll target but it won’t be the rich who can hire a army of accountants and lawyers to protect themselves. Here’s the apparent ultimate goal of it starting with the new 87 thousand workers they want to hire to enforce controlling your taxes and violating your 4 th amendment and more.
.. his policy, which has long been a pet project of progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), would replace the existing system of voluntary compliance, where Americans are responsible for filling out their own tax returns, with a system where the government assesses and files taxes for Americans.
At best, it would require the IRS to collect more personal data to properly assess taxes. A recent report by the Progressive Policy Institute noted that the IRS currently does not have the information it needs to prepare tax returns for American families especially refundable tax credits claimed by millions of low-income taxpayers.
At worst, it would give the IRS more power to intrude in the lives of Americans and create a strong conflict of interest. Americans barely understand the tax code as it stands. Sixty-five percent think the tax code is too complex, compared to 7 percent that think it is too simple.
The IRS would have an incentive to overcharge a taxpayer and that individual would either have to take the government at their word or file themselves. If a taxpayer does decide to contest, there is no guarantee they will be aware of every deduction and credit they are owed unless they hire an expert to assist them. Of course, the IRS will have 80,000 new agents and the bank account information of taxpayers so taxpayers will be at a disadvantage even if they understand the law.
The IRS has proven unwilling or unable to protect taxpayer data. Earlier this year, the progressive group ProPublica announced it had received the stolen private tax returns of thousands of taxpayers covering 15 years. While the IRS and Treasury Department claim to not know how this tax information was obtained, if accurate it was obtained illegally and represents a stunning and alarming leak of taxpayer data.
This leak is not an isolated case — A 2016 Inspector General report found that the IRS had lost track of 1,000 laptops containing sensitive taxpayer data that were used by contract employees while in 2015, hackers stole the personal data of 330,000 taxpayers.
The IRS already has over 2,000 armed agents to enforce tax law. How many of the new 87,000 new agents will be armed?
Two decades ago, IRS agents came under scrutiny for tactics the New York Times described as “military-style raids” for taxpayers accused of non-violent crimes. A 1998 Washington Post article described how several small business owners were harassed by the IRS: “raiding parties of armed agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division barged into their homes or offices, frightened their employees and families — and ultimately came up empty-handed.”
If President Biden and congressional Democrats are successful, they will double the size of the IRS so that bureaucrats can snoop on the bank accounts of Americans and so the agency can create a new government tax filing system. These vast new powers will not be used to go after wealthy taxpayers but will fall on middle-class families and small businesses for years to come.