Additional staffing and a post-pandemic focus on tax fraud have led to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) prosecuting 53 percent more tax offenders in the past two years, according to a December report from Scholaroo. According to its research, in a state-by-state breakdown, those attempting fraud against the IRS in the states of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wyoming had the greatest chance of getting caught.
But according to Scholaroo’s research, to be in the IRS crosshairs, you must make some serious money. “The IRS suggests that approximately 75 percent of tax fraud is committed mainly by individuals in the middle-income range,” the Scholaroo data team shared in a written statement to The Epoch Times. “However, the highest incidence of evasion is observed among the wealthiest 5 percent, with an income of at least $200,000. In this elite group, taxpayers hide more than 20 percent of their income from the tax authorities.”
Scholaroo has made its mark as an online college scholarship cloud platform and has recently gotten involved in the data research business. The report comes as some taxpayers have been concerned about the purpose of the Biden administration’s plan to add 30,000 IRS employees over the next two years as part of an $80 billion funding mandate from the Inflation Reduction Act passed in the summer of 2022.
Initially, the concern was that the additional IRS employees would target independent contractors and small-business owners. But Robert Nassau, a law professor and director of the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic at Syracuse University, told The Epoch Times that making less-than-honest claims on tax forms will still get you in trouble no matter your income level.
“Those independent contractors who get audited must have a stamp on their head that says audit me. It’s complete BS. The wealthier people who are going to get audited are engaged in more sophisticated planning,” he said. “Occasionally, I have seen business expense audits, and I’ll tell you some of those people frankly are idiots. They haven’t embraced the saying ‘the pigs get fat and the hog gets slaughtered.’ Obviously, you’re going to get audited if you show $41,000 in income and $75,000 in write-offs four years in a row.”
By Mark Gilman
