CBO: Actually, the "Inflation Reduction Act" will cause more audits for working class - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

Wandering the information superhighway, he came upon the last refuge of civilization, PoFo, the only forum on the internet ...

All general discussion about politics that doesn't belong in any of the other forums.

Moderator: PoFo Political Circus Mods

#15243222
CBO: Actually, the "Inflation Reduction Act" will cause more audits for working class
Jazz Shaw | HotAir.com - August 13, 2022

A disturbing pattern has emerged when it comes to the messaging we’re seeing out of the White House in general and the Press Secretary in particular. They seem to believe that if you keep saying something that’s wrong over and over again, it will eventually either become true, or at least people will start to believe it. That’s truly been the case with the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” that just passed in the House on a party-line vote. ‘This bill will lower inflation.’ (No, it will probably increase inflation or possibly not affect it.) ‘The bill will reduce the deficit.’ (Nope. That’s not what the models show.) ‘This bill will raise GDP.’ (Care to try again?) And then there’s the latest claim that the massive army of new IRS agents, many of them heavily armed but not trained in firearms handling very well, will not result in more audits of working-class people and will only impact those making more than $400k. They’ve said it over and over again. But the Congressional Budget Office begs to differ. (Free Beacon)

A Congressional Budget Office report found that the Internal Revenue Service will collect billions of dollars from auditing low- and middle-income Americans under the White House-backed “Inflation Reduction Act,” contradicting Biden administration claims, according to Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Fox News confirmed the report, finding the CBO informed congressional Republicans that, under the act, audits of taxpayers making under $400,000 will account for about $20 billion in additional revenue.

The news comes after high-ranking Biden administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, assured Americans that the IRS would not increase audits of people earning under $400,000.


There was a time when the members of Congress didn’t generally make too many claims about the fiscal impact of new legislation until the CBO had scored it. Apparently, that quaint practice is no longer part of the day-to-day routine on the Hill. The CBO estimates that audits of people making less than Joe Biden’s claimed minimum income will produce an additional $20 billion in revenue for Uncle Sam. That’s a lot of money even in these days of freewheeling deficit spending. And it directly contradicts what the White House has been telling us. Of course, it’s too late now.

I will agree that there have been some inaccurate claims about this bill making the rounds, particularly in conservative circles. The nearly 90,000 new IRS workers will not be hired all at once, for example. They will be hired over a period of ten years and some of them will replace current agents who will retire. But there will still be tens of thousands of new workers and many will come in the door very soon.

The climate portion of the bill isn’t 100% hot garbage, though at least 90% of it certainly is. There will be some funding for improvements to the energy grid infrastructure and the easing of some regulatory hurdles for the construction of nuclear power plants. But most of those positive aspects of the plan will be effectively wiped out by all of the green energy subsidies and new fees imposed on the fossil fuel industry.

But at the end of the day, the claimed purpose of this legislation is little more than a bad joke being played on the taxpayers. The supposed “inflation reduction” claims have already been fully debunked. The Wharton School of Business concluded that the bill’s impact on inflation will be “statistically indistinguishable from zero.” And it will actually have a negative impact on GDP for many years to come.

These people in Congress and the White House are standing there on the world stage and lying to your faces in broad daylight. Yes, I realize that a story about politicians lying is generally a “dog bites man” type of report. But they could at least try a little harder to fool us, couldn’t they?

Source: https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/08/13 ... ss-n489425
#15243225
The Middle Class Won’t Escape the New IRS Audit Wave
15 August de 2022 by Cassiano Lopes

Democrats spent last week swearing that only high earners would be squeezed under their plan to beef up the Internal Revenue Service. It only took a few days for the Congressional Budget Office to put that narrative to rest. A quick analysis from the budget scorer confirms that the audit expansion will ensnare the middle class.

The CBO made the point in an Aug. 12 letters two Sen. Mike Crapo, who had sought to bind Democrats to their promise to limit audits to high earners. If the IRS expansion plan “is not about folks who make less than $400,000,” as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed, why not make that clear in the bill? Mr. Crapo proposed an amendment to ensure new audits would exclude taxpayers earning less than $400,000, but Democrats voted it down 51 to 50.

Mr. Crapo then asked the CBO to calculate the effect his amendment would have had. The agency found that increased scrutiny on filers earning less than $400,000 would account for $20 billion over 10 years, out of a total of about $204 billion that Democrats hope to collect through a bigger, worse IRS. In other words, the IRS expansion as it’s currently designed could collect billions in revenue from new middle-class audits.

The problem is that for every tax cheat the IRS identifies, several more compliant tax filers will be subjected to unnecessary scrutiny. Many of the hundreds of thousands of people audited each year are chosen at random, and most taxpayers cannot afford a lawyer to go to Tax Court to contest IRS claims of tax liability. They write the check to end the relentless IRS pursuit, whether or not they think it’s fair.

Cracks had already emerged in the White House narrative before CBO weighed in. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who oversees the IRS, wrote to the agency’s commissioner last week to clarify the funding plan.

The additional $80 billion, she wrote, “shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited.” [Emphasis added.] Contrary to the White House, Ms. Yellen promised only that new audits wouldn’t be directed disproportionately at the middle class. She didn’t dispute that thousands more middle and low earners will face scrutiny.

On Friday House Democrats passed the tax-and-spending bill that includes the supersize IRS on a party-line vote, and President Biden will sign it this week. Good luck to readers as the taxman comes.

https://larsonacc.com/the-middle-class- ... wave/3863/

Source: https://www.wsj.com/articles/middle-cla ... 1660499499
#15243497
CBO report does not say Inflation Reduction Act would change individual income tax rates

Some VERIFY readers have reached out to the team asking about news headlines, like this one from the New York Post, that say the Inflation Reduction Act will “cost the middle-class $20 billion in new taxes.” These reports cite the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan federal agency that analyzes budgetary and economic issues.

The claims stem from a proposed amendment to the Inflation Reduction Act filed by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). It would have prevented the IRS from using any of its $80 billion in funding included in the legislation for audits on Americans with taxable incomes below $400,000, according to a press release.

Crapo’s office did reiterate that there are no direct increases on personal income tax rates included in the Inflation Reduction Act. Instead, the projected $20 billion in IRS revenue would stem from “increased IRS enforcement,” a spokesperson for Crapo wrote in an email.

Crapo’s proposed amendment did not pass the Senate.

VERIFY reached out to the CBO to ask about the potential impact of Crapo’s proposed amendment. A spokesperson told VERIFY that the agency “did not complete a formal cost estimate in advance consideration of the amendment,” but did provide information to the Senate Budget Committee. If the proposed amendment preventing audits passed, it could have reduced IRS revenues by at least $20 billion over the next decade, according to the CBO’s preliminary assessment.

That means the projected $20 billion in revenue would come from audits – not individual income taxes, as Crapo mentioned. But the IRS and U.S. Department of the Treasury have said audits will not increase for middle-class Americans.

The IRS is hoping to hire new staff with funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to “improve taxpayer services and experienced auditors who can take on corporate and high-end tax evaders,” according to the Treasury Department. It will not increase audit rates “relative to historical norms” for people earning under $400,000 per year.

IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig also assured Senate members in a recent letter that the IRS would not “increase audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.” https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/verify/economy-verify/fact-check-inflation-reduction-act-no-raise-middle-class-income-taxes/536-af938bb4-eece-4d56-ab30-5fe8b92d7e79
#15243506
The current lie by the Right is that these guys will be violently assaulting homes and businesses.

Do I really need to say that is completely nuts?

Republicans have been sheltering the rich from taxes for 40 years, using a variety of means. They are still doing it...

This is all about nailing well off tax cheats.

They are crooked, as are the Republicans trying to help them keep dodging their taxes..

https://twitter.com/CIJ_ICJ/status/177337636136248[…]

I was actually unaware :lol: Before he was […]

Israel-Palestinian War 2023

Every accusation is a confession Why sexual v[…]

Indeed. It is strange, but they're all over the in[…]