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IRS strike forces, the latest manufactured crisis

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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Todd Dorman
Aug. 25, 2022 7:00 am

In yet another sign of how deep we’ve fallen into a political abyss of reckless fabrications, an effort to help the federal agency that collects our taxes simply do its job has been labeled as tyranny.

There’s a nearly $80 billion funding increase for the Internal Revenue Service in the Inflation Reduction Act approved by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden. In 2021 it was estimated the increase could allow the IRS to hire 87,000 personnel. We don’t really know how many employees would be hired, but the numbers are likely to include customer service workers, IT professionals and agents.

Reuters reports that the IRS has 16,000 fewer employees than it had in 2010 and 50,000 employees are expected to retire in the next five years. The IRS has seen long delays in sending out tax refunds and runs on antiquated technology. Oh, and there’s the $600 billion gap between taxes owed and taxes paid. The new effort hopes to collect $200 billion.

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But if you listen to many Republicans, the IRS is building an army of agents to attack middle-income Americans and small businesses.

"Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small-business person in Iowa?" Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said recently on Fox News. "With 87,000 additional employees, you can imagine what that harassment's going to be to middle-class Americans and our small business people.”

I know Grassley is a shadow of his once more moderate self. But it’s still jarring to watch him go full-Ted Cruz. This is “pull the plug on grandma” Grassley. Very few IRS employees are authorized to carry firearms, by the way.

The new IRS funding will give the agency more resources after years of budget cuts to go after high-income tax cheats, focusing on taxpayers with earnings of more than $400,000 annually. Wealthy tax dodgers are, apparently, a core Republican constituency. Crippling government functions only to criticize them for being inept is classic GOP tactic.

But it’s strange to see fiscal conservatives who often gripe about government “waste, fraud and abuse,” shrugging at $600 billion in unpaid taxes. This is money that could be used to fund the defense budget they love, and the salary and perks they receive as members of Congress.

Rather than showing up at my house with an “AK-15,” an IRS staffer just might answer the phone if I have a question. As of June, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate, the IRS had a backlog of 21.3 million unprocessed paper returns. Average phone wait times increased to 29 minutes. Refunds have been delayed by months.




These are real problems. But real problems are no match for manufactured ones in today’s GOP.


So the IRS is unleashing armed thugs. A lawfully executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago is tyranny. Our public schools are leftist indoctrination gulags. School libraries are full of “X-rated” books. Transgender girls are destroying women’s sports, and supporting transgender kids in schools is a massive problem.


The 2020 election was stolen through rampant fraud, so voting must be restricted. Threats to democracy? What threats to democracy? An insurrection? Legitimate political discourse.


These are the folks who may be running two branches of government when the dust settles in November. The abyss is bottomless.

 
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I don't know - my totally mentally there, not bordering on dementia, 88 year old Senator Grassley and his pidgin told me armed IRS agents are hunting me down. I'm going to need more information.

We have RoboCops for the IRS, as we should. Tax cheats steal from everyone (unless you're some libertarian who has bought into the idea that taxation is theft)
 
I made a small mistake once on college expenses on my taxes.

The IRS demanded I send them class syllabus(s) for all three kids all classes to prove they needed the books.

yeah, F them. To pretend they use common sense and are only looking for the big cheats is bullshit.
 
I made a small mistake once on college expenses on my taxes.

The IRS demanded I send them class syllabus(s) for all three kids all classes to prove they needed the books.

yeah, F them. To pretend they use common sense and are only looking for the big cheats is bullshit.

So what was your mistake?
 
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I can’t wait for the Hollywood movie of the young hotshot irs auditor smashing tax cheats left and right while the old vet looks on knowing the young guy is in over his head, pbut is going to let the mistakes take the young guy back down to earth. I see at least 2 montage sequences and ‘Danger Zone’ will definitely be playing as our young auditor redeems himself by going over the taxes of the bad guy. At one point his pen will go out, but no need to worry, he has 3 spares in his pocket protector ready to deliver swift justice.

the soundtrack is going to be epic.
 
I made a small mistake once on college expenses on my taxes.

The IRS demanded I send them class syllabus(s) for all three kids all classes to prove they needed the books.

yeah, F them. To pretend they use common sense and are only looking for the big cheats is bullshit.

Don't get me started (again) on my hate for the IRS. I've had run-ins with them - all ending with me in the right and my filing being accurate - that were about as common sense as it gets but the imbeciles there took an eternity to figure it out. Show me a competent IRS agent and I'll show you a unicorn. That said, even with all this disdain for them, I'm not worried about them busting down my door with a battering ram.
 
People should read the bill. $45B is earmarked to hire new enforcement agents. I don't know how many agents that works out to, but it's a lot. To try and say the extra money is to replace retiring agents, or to fill jobs that are already open, is simply a lie.
 
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People should read the bill. $45B is earmarked to hire new enforcement agents. I don't know how many agents that works out to, but it's a lot. To try and say the extra money is to replace retiring agents, or to fill jobs that are already open, is simply a lie.

You posted this before. That is not true.
 
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People should read the bill. $45B is earmarked to hire new enforcement agents. I don't know how many agents that works out to, but it's a lot. To try and say the extra money is to replace retiring agents, or to fill jobs that are already open, is simply a lie.
Lot's of gaslighting going on with this subject....
 
People should read the bill. $45B is earmarked to hire new enforcement agents. I don't know how many agents that works out to, but it's a lot. To try and say the extra money is to replace retiring agents, or to fill jobs that are already open, is simply a lie.
You are making the assumption that "hiring new" is expanding the number of enforcement agents and not "hiring new" is hiring a new guy to replace someone that is leaving.
 
Here @Finance85 , I'll save you the time.

Enforcement = In addition to agents....Attorneys, new computer systems/processes/programmers, vehicles, etc, to be spread out over 9 years as needed.

(ii) Enforcement.--For necessary expenses for tax
enforcement activities of the Internal Revenue Service to
determine and collect owed taxes, to provide legal and
litigation support, to conduct criminal investigations
(including investigative technology), to provide digital
asset monitoring and compliance activities, to enforce
criminal statutes related to violations of internal revenue
laws and other financial crimes, to purchase and hire
passenger motor vehicles (31 U.S.C. 1343(b)), and to
provide other services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at
such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner,
$45,637,400,000, to remain available until September 30,
2031: Provided, That these amounts shall be in addition to
amounts otherwise available for such purposes.
 
Lot's of gaslighting going on with this subject....
My centrist from another mother! While we're on gaslighting. Who does college better you think, your adopted Deutschland or this stable genius country where we believe college should only be a privilege for the wealthy and everyone else should become indentured cubicle dwellers if they want formal instruction in something intellectually enriching? I get the process with the EO bugs you, but what do you think about just the bigger overall issue?
 
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Lot's of gaslighting going on with this subject....

Definitely.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa asked on Fox and Friends on Aug. 11 whether the IRS would “have a strike force that goes in with AK-15′s [sic] already loaded ready to shoot some small business person in Iowa.”

 
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Here @Finance85 , I'll save you the time.

Enforcement = In addition to agents....Attorneys, new computer systems/processes/programmers, vehicles, etc, to be spread out over 9 years as needed.

(ii) Enforcement.--For necessary expenses for tax
enforcement activities of the Internal Revenue Service to
determine and collect owed taxes, to provide legal and
litigation support, to conduct criminal investigations
(including investigative technology), to provide digital
asset monitoring and compliance activities, to enforce
criminal statutes related to violations of internal revenue
laws and other financial crimes, to purchase and hire
passenger motor vehicles (31 U.S.C. 1343(b)), and to
provide other services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at
such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner,
$45,637,400,000, to remain available until September 30,
2031: Provided, That these amounts shall be in addition to
amounts otherwise available for such purposes.
Thanks for verifying what I said.
 
So what was your mistake?
Check box on tax act for one of the earning credits on one child. Tossed absolutely everything out for all three kids. Threats of a $10,000 penalty and all kinds of bullshit and letters. Eventually an agent said “well you could have just checked the other credit and it would have been about the same”.

we paid a big ass penalty for basically nothing. A couple hundred dollars turned into a couple thousand thanks to the IRS gestapo. If you think the agents are just looking for whales you are kidding yourself. Their threats were more money than we pay in total taxes for multiple years combined.
 
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Todd Dorman
Aug. 25, 2022 7:00 am

In yet another sign of how deep we’ve fallen into a political abyss of reckless fabrications, an effort to help the federal agency that collects our taxes simply do its job has been labeled as tyranny.

There’s a nearly $80 billion funding increase for the Internal Revenue Service in the Inflation Reduction Act approved by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden. In 2021 it was estimated the increase could allow the IRS to hire 87,000 personnel. We don’t really know how many employees would be hired, but the numbers are likely to include customer service workers, IT professionals and agents.

Reuters reports that the IRS has 16,000 fewer employees than it had in 2010 and 50,000 employees are expected to retire in the next five years. The IRS has seen long delays in sending out tax refunds and runs on antiquated technology. Oh, and there’s the $600 billion gap between taxes owed and taxes paid. The new effort hopes to collect $200 billion.

Advertisement

But if you listen to many Republicans, the IRS is building an army of agents to attack middle-income Americans and small businesses.

"Are they going to have a strike force that goes in with AK-15s already loaded, ready to shoot some small-business person in Iowa?" Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said recently on Fox News. "With 87,000 additional employees, you can imagine what that harassment's going to be to middle-class Americans and our small business people.”

I know Grassley is a shadow of his once more moderate self. But it’s still jarring to watch him go full-Ted Cruz. This is “pull the plug on grandma” Grassley. Very few IRS employees are authorized to carry firearms, by the way.

The new IRS funding will give the agency more resources after years of budget cuts to go after high-income tax cheats, focusing on taxpayers with earnings of more than $400,000 annually. Wealthy tax dodgers are, apparently, a core Republican constituency. Crippling government functions only to criticize them for being inept is classic GOP tactic.

But it’s strange to see fiscal conservatives who often gripe about government “waste, fraud and abuse,” shrugging at $600 billion in unpaid taxes. This is money that could be used to fund the defense budget they love, and the salary and perks they receive as members of Congress.

Rather than showing up at my house with an “AK-15,” an IRS staffer just might answer the phone if I have a question. As of June, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate, the IRS had a backlog of 21.3 million unprocessed paper returns. Average phone wait times increased to 29 minutes. Refunds have been delayed by months.




These are real problems. But real problems are no match for manufactured ones in today’s GOP.


So the IRS is unleashing armed thugs. A lawfully executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago is tyranny. Our public schools are leftist indoctrination gulags. School libraries are full of “X-rated” books. Transgender girls are destroying women’s sports, and supporting transgender kids in schools is a massive problem.


The 2020 election was stolen through rampant fraud, so voting must be restricted. Threats to democracy? What threats to democracy? An insurrection? Legitimate political discourse.


These are the folks who may be running two branches of government when the dust settles in November. The abyss is bottomless.

Grassley's earthy cute grandpa act is insidious and borderline evil.
 
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Nice deflection from not really having a clue. For every agent, there will probably be 10 support positions. Also in there is this:

"and to provide other services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at
such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner,"

which means highly paid outsiders making big bucks

It's still enforcement. You can rationalize it all you want.
 
My centrist from another mother! While we're on gaslighting. Who does college better you think, your adopted Deutschland or this stable genius country where we believe college should only be a privilege for the wealthy and everyone else should become indentured cubicle dwellers if they want formal instruction in something intellectually enriching? I get the process with the EO bugs you, but what do you think about just the bigger overall issue?
It's complicated.

Overall I like the way the Germans have apprenticeship programs and only around 30%? (going off memory) actually go on to University. My youngest is currently in a nursing program and we don't pay anything for school....she does on the job training for 3 months...3 months of school, back and forth for 3 years and then she can decide on a specialty.

I do think the Germans shoe horn kids into certain paths a little early (age 16). I think the light bulb comes on for a lot of kids later in life and perhaps our system is better in that regard.

I believe our top end universities are some of the best in the world.

I'd like to think maybe a combination of both systems...taking the best from both would be the way to go. Especially would like us to embrace a German style apprenticeship program....

German Universities and Degree's are more focused as well....you go to University to actually get a degree worth something. I think our system has too many people going to University for degree's that just don't do much for them.

So in regards to student debt....if we're going to make college free like the Germans.....tightening up entrance standards AND having a very focused amount of degree's that will be "free" is a must IMO. Can't be wasting tax dollars on degree's that aren't essential... just isn't doable....neither is everyone going to University.
 
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I don't know - my totally mentally there, not bordering on dementia, 88 year old Senator Grassley and his pidgin told me armed IRS agents are hunting me down. I'm going to need more information.
He's definitely earned the name "Senile Chuck".

It's rather embarrassing to call him a US Senator, but hey... Iowans love their incumbents.
 
Personally, I don't mind paying every cent I owe in taxes.

Maybe that's just me.

I don't understand the outrage? Hopefully it incentivizes people who were considering "fudging" on their tax filings to think twice.

Pay what you owe and move on. And there's no guarantee that the US govt will fill all these positions. I'd bet the cost will be considerably less than estimated.
 
What's wrong with properly enforcing the existing law? Grassley's lucky he isn't Florida, our Governor would try to suspend him from office.
Reynolds is just hoping Grassley lives long enough to be reelected.

This isn't Clarke County Iowa where she can be elected by promising free booze to her supporters. I'm actually surprised Kimberly hasn't weighed in on this IRS agent thing.
 
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People should read the bill. $45B is earmarked to hire new enforcement agents. I don't know how many agents that works out to, but it's a lot. To try and say the extra money is to replace retiring agents, or to fill jobs that are already open, is simply a lie.
Good. It, AGAIN, has been stated for years that the IRS needs more manpower to go after the wealthy tax cheats who ARE REALLY REALLY GOOD finding ways to cheat on their taxes and hide their money. We need more investigators to go after them. This coming after you crap is just more Republican fear porn. You seem to agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene on this topic. I will go the opposite. If she thinks it's bad, then I can be 98% certain it's good.
 
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