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Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) in the Statuary Hall of the Capitol building in
Washington, on Jan. 30, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
Economic Policies


IT’S ‘GUARANTEED’ AMERICANS EARNING LESS THAN $400,000 WILL BE HOUNDED BY IRS:
REP. SCALISE

By Tom Ozimek
Tom Ozimek
Reporter
Tom Ozimek has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing
and communications, and adult education. The best writing advice he's ever heard
is from Roy Peter Clark: 'Hit your target' and 'leave the best for last.'
View profile
Follow
August 15, 2022 Updated: August 15, 2022
biggersmaller
Print
0:006:31

1



Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said that the Democrat spending bill that boosts IRS
funding is “guaranteed” to squeeze more tax revenue from middle- and
lower-income Americans despite Biden administration insistence that households
making less than $400,000 won’t face higher taxes or audit rates.

Scalise, who is the House Republican whip, made the remarks on the House floor
and in an interview on Fox News on Aug. 12, the day the Democrat-controlled
House passed the Inflation Reduction Act.

“The smoking gun came out this morning,” Scalise said on the House floor,
referring to a statement from the non-partisan scorekeeper at the Congressional
Budget Office (CBO) that reportedly confirmed that $20 billion in additional tax
revenue would come from middle- and lower-income households owing to the IRS
enforcement funding boost.

“It was a confirmation that the IRS agents will be getting about $20 billion in
new taxes from people making less than $400,000,” Scalise said, while
characterizing the CBO statement as confirmation that the bill “breaks President
[Joe] Biden’s promise” that Americans making less than that amount shouldn’t
worry as their taxes won’t go up.

“It’s confirmed by the CBO, and there was an amendment to stop it from
happening, and every Democrat voted against it,” Scalise continued, referring to
amendment 5404 (pdf) proposed by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) that would have
prevented any of the funds appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act being
used to audit taxpayers making less than $400,000 a year.

The $20 billion in additional taxes from American households earning less than
$400,000 was arrived at by calculating how much less tax revenue would flow into
government coffers if legislators had accepted Crapo’s amendment, according to
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, who disclosed part of the CBO
statement.

“CBO has not completed a point estimate of this amendment but the preliminary
assessment indicates that amendment 5404 would reduce the ‘non-scorable’
revenues resulting from the provisions of section 10301 by at least $20 billion
over the FY2022-FY2031 period,” the CBO said, according to Republicans.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the CBO with a request for confirmation of
the scorekeeper’s assessment.

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) in an interview with NTD in Washington on Sept. 30, 2021.
(Screenshot via The Epoch Times)


‘ARMY OF 87,000 NEW IRS AGENTS’

In an interview on Fox News, Scalise said that the reason Democrats rejected
Crapo’s amendment is because they plan to squeeze more tax revenue from middle-
and lower-income Americans, despite multiple statements by Biden administration
officials to the contrary.

“This army of 87,000 new IRS agents … will be going after people making less
than $400,000. That would break President Biden’s pledge,” Scalise told Fox
News.

“It’s been guaranteed. We know that it will happen. CBO confirmed it today,”
Scalise added.

It’s a view shared by Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), who told NTD in a recent interview
that middle-income Americans are going to be harmed as the “onerous and
burdensome” provisions of the bill enable a legion of “hyper-motivated” IRS
agents to go after Americans making less than $400,000 a year.

“I’ve never had one constituent yet tell me they wish we had more IRS agents.
Most of this money will be spent on enforcement to go after Americans to harass
and intimidate Americans to collect more revenue to try to pay for these
terrible Democrat environmental extremist policies,” Good said.

The Republican lawmaker estimated that the tens of thousands of potential new
IRS hires would result in around a million additional audits per year.

“They’ll go after the middle-income Americans who they know when they get that
threatening tax letter saying you owe the money you must pay or else we’ve
presumed you’re guilty,” Good said.

“They know middle-income Americans can’t hire the tax lawyers, the tax
accountants to fight it. So they’ll just comply. They’ll just give in and
they’ll pay. That’s what it’s intended to do, to harass and threaten, intimidate
Americans,” he added.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a news conference in Nusa
Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on July 14, 2022. (Made Nagi/Pool via Reuters)


MORE TAX AUDITS?

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has insisted Republican claims that tax auditors
will target lower- and middle-income Americans at higher rates are politically
motivated falsehoods.

“Contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small
business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an
increase in the chances that they are audited,” Yellen said in an Aug. 10
letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig.

Yellen also said in the letter that she was ordering the IRS not to use any of
the additional revenue from the legislation to increase audit rates among
middle- and lower-income Americans.

“I direct that any additional resources—including any new personnel or auditors
that are hired—shall not be used to increase the share of small business or
households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical
levels,” she said.

The IRS chief, too, has insisted that the tax agency would “absolutely not” be
increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans
relative to “recent years,” according to a letter to members of the Senate on
Aug. 4 (pdf).

A CBO analysis indicated that, under basically the same funding plan as is
featured in the Inflation Reduction Act, audit rates would be restored to levels
around 10 years ago and that audit rates would rise “for all taxpayers,” though
ones with higher incomes would face the biggest increase.

IRS audit rates have fallen sharply over the past decade, with the Government
Accountability Office saying in a report that rates in 2019 were about one-third
of those in 2010 for all income groups, dropping from 0.9 percent down to 0.25
percent.

A CBO estimate (pdf) shows that that the additional $80 billion in funding will
bring in around $204 billion in new revenue, including from enforcement.

Tom Ozimek
Reporter
Follow
Tom Ozimek has a broad background in journalism, deposit insurance, marketing
and communications, and adult education. The best writing advice he's ever heard
is from Roy Peter Clark: 'Hit your target' and 'leave the best for last.'




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