The IRS is launching an effort to crack down on 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said that with a boost in federal funding and the help of artificial intelligence tools, the agency has new means of targeting wealthy people who have “cut corners” on their taxes.
“If you pay your taxes on time it should be particularly frustrating when you see that wealthy filers are not,” Werfel told reporters in a call previewing the announcement. He said 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250,000 each in back taxes and 75 large business partnerships that have assets of roughly $10 billion on average are targeted for the new “compliance efforts.”
and 75 large business partnerships that have assets of roughly $10 billion on average are targeted for the new "compliance efforts."
From the article.
Anyway, I think billionaires are millionaires. Have to be to have billions. Which is to say, I doubt they're not targeting billionaires too and that I'm thankful that AI will help the IRS keep the rich accountable.
The difference in disposable capital between a millionaire and a billionaire is substantial. A millionaire might be able to drag out an audit and find clever loopholes.
A billionaire will simply fund Republican candidates that will defund the IRS so that they never even see the audit.
If you have a million, you can spend $1.9 every minute to spend it all in a year. If you have a billion, it's $1900 every minute. A millionaire is just a rounding error for a billionaire.
But I think it missed the point of what I was saying.
Millionaire includes Billionaires. If you have 999 million, you don't stop having millions of dollars because you rob people of one more million.
It's an inclusive term of billionaires, and was probably chosen as the title of the article to save on space rather than to imply billionaires are somehow excluded from these new procedures.