Some millionaires were also sent to prison
The Internal Revenue Service says it collected almost half a billion dollars from wealthy tax cheats last year, in a continuing effort to step up their enforcement against high-income tax debts.
The IRS released its year-end progress report this month, saying it will continue to audit large corporations, high-income individuals, and complex partnerships that are not paying their fair share of U.S. taxes.
The agency says it pursued 1,600 millionaires to recoup the overdue tax payments and will not stop now.
The IRS is ramping up their pursuit of high-income tax debts
“The IRS continues to increase scrutiny on high-income taxpayers as we work to reverse the historic low audit rates that the wealthiest individuals and organizations faced,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, referring to previous White House administrations' minimal pursuit of high-income tax debts.
On their radar are the highest income tax debtors, including partnerships, large corporations, and high-wealth individuals
“We are adding staff and technology to ensure that the taxpayers with the highest income, including partnerships, large corporations, and millionaires and billionaires, pay what is legally owed under federal law,” Werfel said.
Some examples include:
- In December, a Swiss Bank agreed to pay approximately $122.9 million to the U.S. Treasury for its role in assisting U.S. taxpayer-clients with evading their taxes by opening undeclared accounts to conceal money from the IRS. The bank held 1,637 accounts, with assets of $5.6 billion on behalf of clients who collectively evaded $50.6 million in U.S. taxes.
- Also In December, an individual was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $470,000 in restitution to the IRS for filing a false tax return while working as a money mule for romance scams. The individual maintained bank accounts to collect proceeds from the schemes and to send the money to himself and others overseas.
- One individual was sentenced to 57 months in prison for failing to pay more than $1.35 million of taxes arising from their operation of several restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area. The individual evaded taxes by concealing assets and obscuring the large sums of money they took from the businesses by purchasing property in the name of a nominee entity and causing false entries in the businesses’ books and records to hide personal purchases using business bank accounts.
More money = more IRS agents
The Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022 by the White House and Congress provided the additional money that paid for more IRS agents to do these audits on the wealthiest tax defrauders, and the agency says it is making a difference for law-abiding taxpayers.
“As the initiatives to improve compliance increase, the IRS continues its work to improve customer service and modernize core technology infrastructure."
“We focused on improving our taxpayer service for hard-working taxpayers, offering them more in-person and online resources in 2024.”
If you're not among the ultra-wealthy, don't let your guard down!
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