IRS Collects $1 Billion in Past-Due Taxes From Millionaires as Compliance Efforts of High-Wealth Groups Continue , corporations, partnerships

On October 20, 2023 we posted IRS Using Inflation Reduction Act Funding To Ensure Large Corporations & High Income Earners Pay Taxes Owed where we discussed that the IRS announced new initiatives to ensure large corporations pay taxes owed. This is in addition to the initiatives to improve compliance among high-income individuals and complex partnerships.

Now according to IR-2024-185 dated July 11, 2024, as part of continuing compliance efforts under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Internal Revenue Service announced the agency has surpassed the $1 billion mark in collections from high-wealth taxpayers with past-due taxes.

As part of larger efforts taking place, the IRS has stepped up activity specifically on 1, 600 individuals whose incomes were more than $1 million per year and who each owed the IRS more than $250, 000 in recognized tax debt. Since last fall, this IRS compliance effort has generated more than $1 billion in collections from this group, with work continuing in this area.

“With this collection activity, the IRS passed an important milestone in our effort to improve compliance and ensure fairness in the tax system, ” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.

“Our Increased Work In This Area Means These Past-Due
Tax Bills From High-End Taxpayers Are No Longer Being
Left On The Table, Like They Were Too Often In The Past.”

"The Collection Results Achieved In Less Than A Year Reveal The Magnitude Of What Can Be Achieved Over The Long
Run As Our Inflation Reduction Enforcement Continues
To Ramp Up In The Months Ahead.”

“We continue working to add 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. “The additional resources the IRS received under the Inflation Reduction Act are making a difference, both for taxpayers who play by the rules and those who don’t.”

Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, more than a decade of budget cuts prevented the IRS from keeping pace with the increasingly complicated maneuvers that the wealthiest taxpayers use to hide their income and evade paying their share. The IRS is continuing to take action to close this gap.

Out of a total of 1, 600 of these cases, the IRS has assigned 1, 500 to revenue officers, with over $1 billion collected so far. The $1 billion collected through spring represents payments from over 1, 200 individuals, with the IRS anticipating the figure to grow in the months ahead.

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