Increase Funding to the IRS for FY2015
Harry, you are letting them off too easily. Both the President and the Congress court those who provide generous donations to their campaign funds each and every year. How do you suspect those folks have such great tax shelters like carried interest for the hedge fund managers-some of the most generous campaign contributors in the country. While all of the rest of us get taxed on our earning from the business we are associated with at higher ordinary income tax rates, hedge fund managers pay income taxes at the much lower capital gains rates for their earnings from the business they work at each day. That single unexplained, unexplainable, and absolutely unfair tax shelter costs the Treasury billions of dollars each year.
Further, you see the audits going down for everyone but the folks with incomes over $10 million have had their audits decreased from 30% in 2011 to 24.2% in 2013. Congress and the President are giving their generous donors a pass again. The Congress substantially cuts the IRS budget and the IRS is forced to economize. The President’s man at the IRS, as part of this process, cuts down the number of audits especially of the high earners and generally the best contributors. He could keep these audit numbers up, but chooses not to. These actions are simply payoffs by both the Congress and the President to reward their contributors. Outrageous behavior as the national debt continues to climb steeply.
Sam Allen
